release the Civil Service Review is timely.

Government has not yet officially released the review, a draft copy of which was obtained and reported on by the media in January.

That report said Bermuda was "overgoverned'', adding that reducing the number of MPs would be "very much pushing at an open door''. The report also proposed cutting the size of the Cabinet to eight.

Aside from the constitutional issues, Government has apparently accepted other recommendations, including the appointment of a Government ombudsman which requires a change to the Constitution.

In June, Premier Jennifer Smith announced that a central policy unit -- another of the recommendations in the draft review -- was to be created in the Cabinet Office and that the job of Cabinet Secretary was being split -- another recommendation in the review.

So why the secrecy? Mr. Barritt is right when he says that it is difficult to measure the validity of the changes now trickling out without considering the review as a whole.

That's a shame because some of the ideas in the draft review appeared to be good. Yet no-one outside a charmed circle of Cabinet Ministers and civil servants knows what is in the final report -- even assuming there is one -- that was not in the draft, or what has been omitted.

More importantly, given that the report seems to be the basis for at least some of the proposed changes to the Constitution, the public is entitled to see the arguments for the changes to the most fundamental law on the books.

Once again, the Government that promised "transparency'' has failed to live up to its words. The public deserves better.

THE RIGHT CHOICE EDT The right choice The story in yesterday's Royal Gazette about the Bahamas' efforts to get off the money laundering blacklist -- and concurrent efforts to get off a list of harmful tax jurisdictions -- shows how fortunate Bermuda is to have been given a clean slate by the international bodies earlier this year.

There have been some arguments that Bermuda should have defended its status as a low-tax jurisdiction and resisted efforts to give away some of the privacy which it offers to its international clients.

Bermuda, and other offshore territories, it was argued, were giving up their sovereignty by accepting the taxation demands of international organisations.

The latter argument looks weaker today than it did before, given the difficulties that the Bahamas and other independent nations are now having.

Bermuda, under the guidance of former Finance Minister Grant Gibbons and current Finance Minister Eugene Cox, several senior civil servants and leaders from the private sector, instead chose to meet the demands where possible and to make every effort to be seen as a model offshore domicile. It would appear that the right choice was made and Government and its private sector partners deserve the credit.