Cabinet should be slashed almost in half, according to a shock probe into the governing of Bermuda leaked to The Royal Gazette .

The in-depth report prepared by UK experts recommends -- despite denials last year by Premier Jennifer Smith -- that Cabinet should be made up of the Premier and just eight Ministers, all full-time.

And it also recommends a beefed-up Cabinet Office with more responsibilities and a new UK-style Policy Unit to co-ordinate Government planning.

The report said: "There is a firm body of evidence to support the argument that there are too many separate Ministries in the Government of Bermuda.

Allied to this, the distribution of functions between these Ministries appears from the outside to be haphazard in many cases.'' And the report added that the current top-heavy system is confusing to the public and leads to badly-co-ordinated Ministerial decision-making, as well as "unmanageable'' Cabinet meetings.

It adds: "Valuable Cabinet time which should be devoted to longer-term, strategic issues is thus wasted.'' The report said: "Our main proposal is therefore to reduce the current 13 Ministries to eight, each with a full-time Minister.'' It added: "An important and powerful element in the functioning of a Public Accounts Committee is that there is `a naming and shaming' of officials who have failed in some aspect of their responsibilities for the proper handling of public money.'' Independent Ministries recommended for the chop in the review include Works and Engineering, Development and Opportunity, Transport, Youth and Sport and Telecommunications.

Cabinet should assume more power, says report And more power is set to be centred on Cabinet Office, which would take over a string of new roles. One option suggested is to split the Cabinet Secretary's job between a new head of the Civil Service and the Cabinet Secretary's other role as chief policy co-ordinator to the Premier and Cabinet -- with the possibility of a short-term secondment of a British civil servant for the policy role.

Cabinet Office would also take over staff and management control, as well as computer systems and services and public relations -- at present under Development and Opportunity Minister Terry Lister.

The report said: "Virtually everybody that we consulted referred to structural and personnel weaknesses at the centre of Government and ascribed part of the reason for the absence of this `joined up' approach to the lack of a strong central co-ordinating function.'' And the report laid part of the blame at the door of the number of Ministries.

But it added: "Part of it is due to a culture of guarding information and intelligence too jealously -- a culture which has grown up over a number of years but which is all-pervasive.'' The report added that Government Information Services (GIS) was "a much under-utilised asset'' and that it should take on a greater role in "selling'' the Civil Service to consumers.

And it recommends that to bring GIS fully under media-shy Premier Smith "should facilitate this change of emphasis''.

GIS was yesterday unable to obtain comment from Ms Smith on her views on the report.

The authors of the report -- both from the UK Civil Service College -- stressed that the report should be regarded as a draft, with further consultation required before "refining the conclusions and recommendations with the stakeholders''.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY HOA