Dear Sir,

Beverly Connell’s excellent and well-researched comments in her letter in today’s paper (October 13, 2022) should be an urgent rallying cry to all of us — not just our political leaders. It is more than alarming that our futures are being jeopardised by incompetent civil servants and a parliament without the will or the ability to change anything.

It appears that none of our civil servants are ever held accountable for anything and the systemic ineptitude is rampant in every department — from the decaying government buildings, to the disgraceful state of the Botanical Gardens, to the state of the roads and that it takes a year to repair a wall. It is hard to think of a single government department that could claim to be the poster child of good governance.

On a less serious note, but equally illustrative of the “government doesn’t work here” syndrome that is so pervasive, my son handed in his passport to be renewed in March. The Department of Immigration has been quick to blame the British Government for the passport delays, but I don’t believe the hold-ups are in Britain, as an overseas friend sent their British Overseas Territories Citizen passport directly to Britain to be renewed and received the new passport in six weeks.

After repeated phone calls to the Department of Immigration, my son was told on August 30 — six months after starting the passport renewal — that his passport had been received back from Britain and someone would be contacting him “soon” to advise when it would be ready for collection. On October 11, he was told it was ready.

So it takes a civil servant in the Department of Immigration six weeks to “process” a passport upon its receipt from Britain!

Have there been any productivity studies done recently on the performance of everyone funded by us who “works” in the Department of Immigration? If this is allowed to continue, everyday life as we know it will just stop. There are already anecdotal stories about land-tax bills not being sent out because that department is “waiting for envelopes”. Why are the people who are responsible for these basic things not held accountable for not performing? You know why? Because their managers aren’t held accountable for non-performance and those responsible for them aren’t held accountable, so we have an all-pervading culture that it doesn’t matter and there will be no repercussions for inadequate performance.

In many countries the Civil Service is staffed by the best-educated and the brightest are actively recruited into government service, having to sit special exams to gain a position against stiff competition. Sadly, in Bermuda, it seems that the Civil Service is basically an unemployment programme for those not qualified for private sector jobs and incapable of performing to any acceptable standard.

Ms Connell is correct: fundamental reform is necessary and urgent. Who is going to implement it? Can you imagine the howls of anguish if the British Government or the International Monetary Fund has to step in?

ELSPETH WEISBERG

Warwick