SAGE Commission Awards Programme Winners
The SAGE Commission today [Sept 5] announced the winners of awards in a programme designed to involve the public as well as members of the Civil and Public Service in the Commission’s review of the Bermuda Government.
Commission Chair Brian Duperreault presented a check for $2,500 to each of the following for his or her submission in one of four categories:
- A member of the public: Jennifer Ebbin
- An employee of Government: Andrea Franklin
- A young person between the ages of 18 and 25: Connor Burns
- A youth under the age of 18: Ryan Robinson Perinchief
The winner for the best overall submission was Magnus Henagulph, who was presented with a check for $12,500. The winning submissions can be viewed on the SAGE Commission’s web site at www.sagecommission.bm.
Mr. Duperreault noted that the SAGE Commission received well over 400 entries which were submitted through the Commission’s web site, in person during private meetings, and by hand to the Commission’s offices.
“We were very pleased with the level of responses the Awards Programme generated”, said Mr. Duperreault. “There was a broad representation from the public and private sector so we feel we met our objective of engaging the community in the process of looking for ways to create a more modern, efficient and accountable government.
Mr. Duperreault noted that submissions were evaluated for the degree to which expenses might be reduced.
“A large number of the submissions we received, including those from the winners, had suggestions for generating revenue,” said Mr. Duperreault. “We didn’t consider those, made no judgment on them, and will pass them on to Government. We judged all submissions solely on ideas related to spending and efficiency.
“Where there were multiple ideas in one submission, we considered the ideas collectively and made our final decision on the value that the submission, in its totality, represented.
“This has been a great exercise for the Commission, one which I believe all members really enjoyed. The input from the Awards Programme, as well as the feedback we’ve received from the meetings and interviews we’ve held during the last five months, are helping us to form recommendations that reflect what the community feels needs to be done to create the government we need and can afford.
“When we submit our final report in October, we feel it will be a fair and honest representation of what we’ve learned during this process.”
No word on what their submissions were. I guess we will have to wait until the report is released to find out. Obviously the winners would hold a pretty high place on their list of recommendations. I look forward to seeing what they are, as someone who submitted a proposal myself.
Oops I missed the bit about the listing on the website…
Well, I’m disappointed I didn’t win anything…
Congratulations to the winners though!
I would hope that the winning submissions are made public so that they could stimulate discussion about their proposals. I’m sure that should be interesting!
Like ‘media’ above me, I missed the bit about them being online… D’oh.
Having said that, I cannot find them on their website anywhere yet.
yea me neither.. i want to read their suggestions… the website dosn’t show anything
Easy Jon – don;t hurt yourself.
Hi Bernews, any chance we can get a look at the winning submissions? Your article says they can be viewed on the website but they do not appear to be there at the time of this posting.
A spokesperson has clarified that the winning submissions will be posted on the SAGE Commission web site this afternoon.
Winning submissions have been posted at http://www.sagecommission.bm – thanks for your patience!
Well damn, if some of these are the winners, how bad were the others!!!!!
I see that the overall winner is none other than a Government DCI employee who writes press releases for the current and former Ministers and other Government officials. Is this not a conflict of interest? I would love to see his recommendations. $12,500 will go a long way to helping out with the 5% decrease in salary starting this month!
He proposes austerity yet he walks away with 12,5000$ !!!! Have a look!
Your knowledge of the workings of Govt certainly assisted with your submission…there are plenty of low hanging fruit out there to reduce cost and they should be moved on asap…however, who is going to implement all of these suggestions…that will cost the govt something but the potential savings far exceed the cost to get a few Permanent Secretary’s or private companies to implement these suggestions.
What happened to the published submissions? One minute they are there, next minute they have vanished. A lot of people have done a lot of work to produce the winning submissions and we all want to see them – uncensored! The whole point of an ‘independent’ commission is the fact that they are independent! Why am I getting the feeling that someone is desperately trying to muzzle the messenger. Whoever is guilty of this interference I say “shame on you”. I am reminded of the famous promise of opening our government to the ‘Sunshine of Public Scrutiny’.
What is going on Sage Commissioners? What is going on OBA? I am a voter and I want to know – The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth!
I downloaded all of them before they were taken down.
I’m hoping that SAGE will either give a good reason for removing them, or repost them.
If not, I will post them online on my Catch-A-Fire blog and people can access them there instead.
Please be so kind and post them now so folks can read them. It is very strange that they would remove them.
SAGE made the following statement on their FB page after being questioned about this:
“SAGE Commission Apologies! They’ll be back up soon – we’ve been asked if some of the submissions can double check some figures in their entries.”
I will still post the originals (if there are changes) on my site later, as those are what the awards were based on.
They are all online on my site now.
OK let’s take a look at some of these salaries listed below, posted on another blog for all to see.
Q1 – Why do we have Four (4) Assistant Cabinet Secretaries? Total Salaries – $726,324.82
Q2 – We have a “Secretary National Security” earning $204,774.82! What EXACTLY does this gentleman do to justify almost a quarter of a million dollars in salary? More importantly – is this the same civil servant who was responsible for the “Faith based Tourism Contract with Mr Andre Curtis that cost the Bermuda taxpayer over $400,000. The contract was so poorly drafted that We – The Bermuda Taxpayer were not able to recoup any of the funds that were given to Mr Curtis despite clear evidence that the monies were not spent as intended when allocated!
Q3 – Nine (9) Permanent Secretaries earning a total of $1,616,155.92. Are any of these civil servants generating any direct income for the country?
Q4 – Do we really need them? Remember the salaries are just the ‘thin end of the wedge’ each of these civil servants has a guilt edge pension plus healthcare benefits for life. The source of all this money is TAXES, the average working person is paying for these exorbitant salaries and benefits every week via the taxes that are deducted from our paychecks and the taxes we pay on everything we purchase that is imported to the island.
Q5 – Are we the workers happy to continue paying the salaries of these highly paid public servants? Are we getting value for money? Are they contributing to the profitability of our Island?
Q6 – SAGE has highlighted the problems and the excesses that exist in the public sector, it is now up to us as voters to start demanding that our government start ‘cutting the fat’ getting rid of the ridiculous excesses in the public sector. Are we ready to start demanding changes?
Better Bermuda :: September 5, 2013 1:58 pm
Our CIVIL SERVICE EXECUTIVE
TITLE NAME ANNUAL SALARY
Secretary To The Cabinet Scott Donald $204,774.82
Assistant Cabinet Secretary Tyrrell Rosemary $179,572.88
Assistant Cabinet Secretary Hall-Bean Judith $187,606.18
Permanent Secretary Francis William $179,572.88
Assistant Cabinet Secretary Azhar Majiedah $179,572.88
Assistant Cabinet Secretary O’brien Florence $179,572.88
Financial Secretary Manders Anthony $204,774.82
Permanent Secretary Jones Warren $179,572.88
Permanent Secretary Monkman Kevin D $179,572.88
Permanent Secretary Rochester Randolph $179,572.88
Permanent Secretary Richardson Francis $179,572.88
Permanent Secretary Binns Dr Derrick $179,572.88
Permanent Secretary Carey Wayne $179,572.88
Secretary National Security Telemaque Marc $204,774.82
Permanent Secretary Whitter Cherie-Lynn $179,572.88
Permanent Secretary Webber Ross $179,572.88
There is no way in hell that these salaries cannot be cut by 15%. $150,000 per year is still a huge amount of money for a civil servant. That would be a $Half-Million right there.
And why is Marc Telemaque still collecting full boat after his demotion? WTF
So the Bermuda Government is okay with their DCI Officers, who sign confidentiality Agreements, publishing intricate details of what is decided in meetings, revealing private details and information provided as a result of their position and heavily criticizing the decisions made by the respective governments of the day???
Good to know that a Civil Servant that breaches their confidentiality Agreement is awarded $12,500 to use the information privy to them for financial gain.
Thanks for questions about the posts on the SAGE Commission’s web site. After the winning submissions were posted on the SAGE Commission web site, it was brought to our attention by one of the winners and by senior members of the Civil Service that there may factual errors and possible breaches of confidential information in some of the submissions. We’ve asked those affected by this to review their entries before we repost them on the SAGE Commission web site.
We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate the interest we’ve received in the Awards Programme.