Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons is quite correct to call for the release of a slew of Government reports ranging from studies on the impact of international companies on Bermuda to the Civil Service Review.

Of the unreleased reports, the Government's failure to produce the Census is the most glaring.

The Census is not simply a snapshot of the Island at a certain time and it is not a simple population gauge, although that is one of its primary functions.

It is the single most important document for Government, business, charities and so on as they plan for the future. And 11 months after the year 2000 ended, it is still unavailable.

While it is true that there were delays in completing the information needed, it boggles the mind that report - or even a summary of its conclusions - are still not ready.

In the meantime, even Government departments and task forces - like the recent transport report committee - are having to rely on data which is as much as ten years old as they attempt to plan for the future.

If the Census is the most irritating missing document, the Government's refusal to release the Civil Service Review, the central document for revamping the Civil Service, is the most mind-boggling.

The Civil Service is paid by the public to serve the public, yet the plans for administration of the Civil Service are being kept from the public.

If taxpayers refused to tell the Government how their businesses were run, they could be put in jail. Yet the Government and the civil servants apparently believe they should not be held accountable. It is, apparently, a matter for Cabinet and the unions to decide and the people who pay their salaries have no say in the matter.

When Dr. Gibbons was Finance Minister, his Government commissioned a tax review which was passed on to the new Government. Finance Minister Eugene Cox sent it back to its authors for further work and it has never been seen since. Yet taxation, and the question of how the tax burden should be shared between the international business sector and the tourism industry, is one of the most pressing economic issues of the day.

The list goes on. Government's statistic collections have historically been weaker than they should be and in recognition of this, Premier Jennifer Smith took the department under her wing. More collection may well be going on, but who would know if no reports are released?

Health issues go ignored. Health Minister Nelson Bascome promised a report on asbestos removal at Southside. It has ever seen the light of day.

The death of a prisoner at the Prison Farm was supposed to be the subject of an inquiry and a report. None has surfaced.

The Police were supposed to make a public a report into the shooting with a rubber bullet of a man more than a year ago. The public is still waiting.

The list goes on and on. The bottom line is that if these reports are not made public, then people will begin to believe that there is something under-hand going on.

And the fact is that the public paid for the reports. There are no state secrets or lives at stake here - only information which in an open and democratic society should be available to all.