Last year, then Home Affairs Minister Paula Cox unveiled a policy that would reward "good corporate citizens" by maing it easier for them to get work permit applications processed and approved.

This was a sensible and intelligent policy that would enable companies that had made a real effort to recruit, train and promote Bermudians to bringing in non-Bermudian employees when necessary.

It also served as a carrot for companies when Ms Cox was also using a stick in terms of limiting the length of time work permit holders could remain in Bermuda, and the number of times they could change jobs.

Indeed, "good corporate citizens" could get exemptions from some of the restrictions being planned. In many ways, this is a win-win situation, enabling companies that were able to successfully balance the obligation to employ Bermudians and advance their careers would also be able continue to grow when there were no Bermudians available for a particular job.

So what has happened? Many employers say that they have never heard a word about the programme since, and indeed, a brief search of the Department of Immigration website shows that the plan only seems to exist in the speech Ms Cox made at the time.

This week, Assistant Chief Immigration Officer Rosie Azhar said the programme was promoted in workshops last year and had been plugged on the website. And she said that companies that asked about speeding up work permit applications were also told about it. But she admitted that the department has "not done anything recently to push it".

Nor would she tell The Royal Gazette how many companies have received the designation, although she did say that ten companies had recently applied. Is this how good policies die?

This Government always runs the risk of being accused of being anti-expatriate and anti-business because of its vocal and passionate support of Bermudians in the workforce.

Ms Cox's policy was aimed at balancing the legitimate right of Bermudians to have a fair chance at jobs against companies' needs to find and hire qualified employees. If the policy she outlined last April has been followed and publicised, it may be that both those needs could have been met.

And the companies that had been granted the designation should be held up as examples to "poor corporate citizens" to show how the needs of Bermudians and the needs of companies can be complementary instead of competing.

Instead it seems to have been pushed to one side. The number of companies, let alone their identities appear to be a state secret, and even the Bermuda Employers Council has not been told how its members can seek the designation.

In the meantime, that the immigration drumbeat goes on, with Bermudians claiming that they are being shut out of jobs while employers complain that it can take months to get a straightforward work permit application approved. The tragedy is that this policy could change that.