Permanent Bermudianisation in the public sector is a pipe dream says Governor Sir John Vereker.

Speaking just days after the appointment of a new Assistant Police Commissioner from the UK ? a concept criticised by former Police narcotics head Larry Smith ? Sir John said the practice of hiring expatriates for key posts was not going to go away.

He said: ?We all have to be grown up about the fact that Bermuda is a small jurisdiction with a small labour market.

?It isn?t just a temporary phenomena that we are going to have to bring in occasionally from the outside, key people for key jobs. I think in small jurisdictions, however prosperous, however self governing, that could well be a permanent feature of the kind of economy we are. Not that we always have a British Assistant Commissioner, but that we always have some people from outside, particularly in public sector positions because we will never be able to fill everyone ourselves.

?And if you think about it, it?s not sensible to try and do so.?

Sir John said there were senior expatriates working in the DPP?s office, the Prisons and the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

?I think that?s a permanent way of ensuring we have a strong society here.

?A small labour market is not always going to produce, particularly in the public sector, people with the skills and experience to fill all the top jobs.

?I don?t know of a similar jurisdiction anywhere in the world which is able to do that. I don?t think it matters. I think it?s healthy.?

He said Assistant Police Commissioner Bryan Bell, who was announced in his three-year post last week, had some valuable experience to contribute.

?But he?s not the UK?s ?narc? in the Bermuda police service, he?s a senior Police officer.?

Mr. Bell will be sharpening the Police response with intelligence-led investigations to curb crime and drugs said Sir John who hopes such an approach can curb the recent upsurge in gun crime which he deplores.

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Vinette Graham-Allen has come under fire with rumblings in her department about the failure to promote Bermudians. But Mr. Vereker, who appoints the DDP but not her staff, said he was pleased with her work.

?She has got rid of about half the backlog of prosecutions cases since the beginning of this year.

?Prosecutions are succeeding. In Supreme Court in the second quarter of this year there have been 19 convictions and three acquittals. The DPP has my confidence. She and her department have been doing a good job.

?There are obviously issues aired in the press about the staffing of that office. Cabinet office has been looking at that.

?The DPP shares my hope, and that of the Government of Bermuda, that good Bermudian prosecutors can be retrained and brought on, indeed it is one of her explicit terms of reference that she try to do so but she can only work with people who come forward.? Sir John publicly clashed with Premier Alex Scott over the appointment of Englishmen Richard Ground as Chief Justice with Mr. Scott favouring naturalised Bermudian Norma Wade-Miller.

And recently Attorney General Larry Mussenden called for Bermuda to adopt the Gibraltar model where a Judicial Appointments Commission chooses judges. But Sir John said: ?We don?t have that here. By common agreement Bermuda currently has the strongest judiciary we have had in living memory.

?We have an exceptional Court of Appeal, we have got some of the most distinguished appeal court judges around, many of them with huge commercial experience. We have an extremely effective Supreme Court which is very well led by the Chief Justice and we have some very strong magistrates, so I think that everyone is pleased with the judiciary here.?