privatisation of the Tourism and Education Departments.

"If private is so good, why are so many Front Street businesses failing,'' questioned the union official.

Eugene Blakeney, general secretary of the Bermuda Public Service Association was responding to Shell CEO, Robert Stewart's call to privatise Tourism and Education.

Privatisation is the sale of government owned or operated business or organisations to the public.

During an address last week to Hamilton Rotarians, Mr. Stewart said the civil service was concerned with perceptions and making politicians look good, not making hard decisions and pleasing the customer.

And he warned that to leave Tourism as it was, near to death, was to court disaster.

Mr. Stewart also accused the Education Department of being "indifferent to the wishes of their customers'' or parents. He said: "Teachers and administrators in the Department of Education are paid irrespective of what the customer thinks, whether a good job or a bad job is done and no one is fired, no salaries are reduced and life goes on very much as before''.

Mr. Blakeney said the BPSA had noted Mr. Stewart's comments with interest.

"He is obviously is not aware that there are some very dedicated, loyal and highly educated civil servants who perform as good a job as others in the private sector,'' Mr. Blakeney said.

But he did agree with Mr. Stewart's stance that no establishment should think of itself as completely efficient.

"We agree with him that no business, whether it is private or public, can afford to ever think it is 100 percent efficient,'' he said. "To this end, continued methods of improving customer satisfaction are a top priority in Government.'' Regarding education, Mr. Blakeney suggested Mr. Stewart tour the CedarBridge Academy to see how Shell could assist in making the school a success.

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