March 2, 2020

The announcements this morning, we
have three Members we will acknowledge this mor ning for not being present. We received notice from MP
Scott Simmons and MP Jeanne Atherden that they
will be absent today.
And we would also like to extend compassion
to MP Commissiong, who will also be out this mor ning, understanding that he just recently lost his good
mother. So our compassion is with him at this time.

MESSAGES FROM THE SENATE

Would any Member like to participate in
the congratulations or obituary speeches this mor ning?
We recognise the Deputy Speaker.
Deputy, you have the floor.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Yes, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like for this House to
send condolences to the family of Walter “JU” Dill. He
was the brother of Helena Molly Burgess from the BIU, and also the brother of the late Chairman of the
Progressive Labour Party, Maynard Dill . I am sure he
will be sorely missed by all his family, his wife , Chery llyn Dill, nieces, nephews, children and all.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise this morning to send congratulatory r emarks to the Bermuda Festival. They had a fantastic
event, Nobuntu. They were a capp ella group of ladies
from Zimbabw e. And they gave a performance that
was world- class, as usual.
3220 2 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly But in particular, I would like to [commend]
Hana Bushara and Derek G. Borg (just like Derek
Simmons’s name). And I want to say those two young
Bermudians equipped themselves so well, and they
should have been included as international artists. Ms.
Hana Bushara was very articulate. She is a young songwriter. And she is an excellent musician. Her
voice is crisp and raspy , and she captivated that aud ience like you cannot imagine. She is a young person who is in university, obviously doing really well. And I
would like to commend her for her presentation and her musical gifts.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I just want
to be associated with the condolences offer ed on Fr iday by the Premier to the family of Ms. Vera Beatrice
Commissiong, whose son Rolfe sits in this very
House.
I knew Mrs. Commissiong personally and
benefited from the association, but not as much as her family certainly would have and the wider country has done. As was already stated, she was one of that celebrated group of the progressive group , with only a
few remaining surviving, who did so much very quietly
behind the scenes for our community. And to the
Commissiong family, to the progressive group family,
to the Progressive Labour Party family and all her
friends, close friends and family here and around the
world, I offer deepest condolences from my family.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There are none.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

The Spe aker: Members, and mainly for our listening
audience, today is the first day of the Budget Debate,
where we enter into the particular ministries and
heads which will be debated. And the Heads this
morning which we will start off with will be for the Ca binet Office.
But for the listening public particularly, because I always get asked, the Speaker will not be in
the Chamber during this period when the Budget D ebate is in Committee. And we will be in the capable
hands of the Deputy Speaker and the panel of Chai rmen.
So I would now like to invite the Deputy
Speaker to take the proceedings of the House. And,
Members, have a good debate.

[Pause and inaudible conversation ]

Okay. Continue.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I move the following heads,
Head 09, Cabinet Office; Head 43, Department of I nformation and Digital Technologies; and Head 80, the
Office of Project Management and Procurement.
(There is no Head 67 funded in this project, so there is not a brief for Head 67.)

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. E. David Burt: I am happy to do that.
Head 09, Cabinet Office; Head 43, the D epartment of Information and Digital Technologies; and
Head 80, the Office of Project Management and Pr ocurement.
As for the instruments of appointment by the
Governor, I will be doing and am responsible for
Heads 09 and 43. And the Minister for the Cabinet
Office, who has responsibility for the Office of Project
Management and Procurement , will be doing Head
80. Are we ready to go, Mr. Chairman? The Chairman: Continue, sir.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the first head that I will do is
Head 09, which is for the Cabinet Office, which is
found on pages B -42 to B -47.

CABINET OFFICE

HEAD 09 —CABINET OFFICE
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, the Cabinet O ffice’s mission is to maintain public confidence by leading the delivery of government services . It gives me
great pleasure to present the budget for Head 09, the
Cabinet Office, which is found on pages B-42 to B-45
of the Budget Book.
Mr. Chairman, the total expenditure is est imated to be $17, 331,000 for 2020/21 and represents
an increase of $1,997,000, or approximately 13 per cent, more than the current budget of 2019/20. A significant portion of th at increase, $1,501,000, is due to
the once- decentrali sed government -wide permanent
secretary [PS] salaries now being centrally held within
the Cabinet Office budget.
An additional $300,000 relates to the PIPA
[Personal Information Protection Act] portion of the
current ICT [Information and Communications Tec hnology] Policy and Innovation Department’s budget
being transferred over to the new PATI/PIPA unit housed within the Cabinet Office. Emphasis must
therefore be placed on the fact that approximately
$1,800,000 is a transfer of funds and not an overall
increase. The remaining amount is due to th e net effect of the transfer out of the Business Development
Unit from the Cabinet Office to the newly formed Ec onomic Development Department, and the addition to
Cabinet Office of funding for an implementation team
to advance initiatives in support of job creation, r enewed economic activity and economic diversification
partially on behalf of the recommendations from BermudaFirst.
Mr. Chairman
, subjective analysis for the
Cabinet Office can be found on page B -44 of the estimates book. Please allow me to highlight the mater ial object code increases as well as decreases .
Salaries , line item 1 , estimated at $5,319,000,
represent an increase of approximately 34 per cent, or $1,339,000, compared to the current 2019/20 budget
provision. This increase is due to the transfer of all PS
salaries into the Cabinet Office , as previously stated.
The salary addition of $1.5 million is not fully reflected,
as the Business Development Unit within the Cabinet
Office has now moved to the new Economic Dev elopment Department , Head 94, for 2020/21 . This will
result in a net transfer -out of three posts.
Travel : Mr. Chairman, while the increase of 6
per cent for T ravel is minor, please note that the entire
amount of $17,000 relates to the transfer in of the
3222 2 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly travel budget for the PIPA section of the current ICT
Policy and Innovation Department , which, as stated,
will be dissolved in the next fiscal year.
Professional Services , the largest material
variance, has an allocation of $2,812,000 in 2020/21,
an increase of $1,607,000. Mr. Chairman, key initi atives to diversify the economy and promote economic
growth in Bermuda demand the attention of specialists
and leaders in their respective fields. In addition, Mr.
Chairman, to advance specific government items
throughout so the Government can deliver on its platform promises t here was a need found for a specific
implementation team inside of the Cabinet Office to
advance these particular matters.
What is important is that it is necessary to
note that right now, Mr. Chairman, currently, various
initiative s are advanced by departments who have to
deal with their regular business. And we have that this has actually slowed some of the implementation. And
that is a reason for the creation of an implementation
team within the Cabinet Office. Therefore, $750,000 has been provided to the Cabinet Office for the assembly of an implementation team , who will , in addition to other things, advance initiatives which have
been accepted by the Government from the Berm udaFirst report, but also existing initiatives within the
Government’s delivery.
In addition, funding is also provided for consultancy fees related to the Commission of Inquiry into
historic land losses , in the amount of $250,000. The
Head of Public Service’s Health Wellness initiative for
$110,000, Government Reform for $154,000 for additional work on government reform and PATI/PIPA
transferred amount of $222,000 are all included in the 2020/21 Professional Services amount . It should be
noted that with the transfer of the PATI/PIPA Office, of
course, there is a significant consultant budget which
was in the department of ICT Policy and Innovation,
and that has been moved over to the Cabinet Office.
Finally Mr. Chairman, Public Relations Services and Parliamentary Research Support for both
London and Brussels Offices result in additional funding of $113,000 and $50,000, respectively.
The Government takes a proactive approach
to media engagement in the U nited Kingdom and E urope, where there are always real threats to Berm uda’s financial services industry. With the significant
increase of new Members of Parliament following the
UK General Election in December 2019, having the
necessary access and data of the new MP ’s assists
the London Office with continued effort for UK Parli amentary engagement. This also extends to the Eur opean Parliament utilised by the Brussels Office. And
part of this increase, Mr. Chairman, is for as I said
additional public relations services inside of the United
Kingdom and Europe, which is necessary due to the threats we are facing there and also enhanced parliamentary research. We use a system that is called
Dods, which gives parliamentary researchers [assi s-tance] as used by the London Office. And we are looking to expand that particular capability.
Finally, Mr. Chairman
the remaining material
variance is seen in Grants and Contributions, the last
line item , which shows an allocation of $6,839,000, a
12 per cent decrease, or $925,000 [less] due to a reduced funding grant to the Bermuda Business Development Agency grant allocation for 2020/21.

Manpower

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, as seen on page
B-45, Employee numbers , there is a total increase of
four FTE ’s [full-time equivalents] in 2020/21 compared
to the 2019/ 20 original estimates. This results from the
net effect of the transfer into Cabinet Office of eight
Permanent Secretary posts and the creation of one
intern post —a total increase of nine FTE’s —and the
transfer out of three Business Development Unit
posts , as well as the two unfunded Washington, DC,
Office posts , a total decrease of five FTE ’s.

Capital Expenditure

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, it will be noted
that at pages C-4 and C -9 there are funds allocated
for Capital Development in the amount of $1,870,000.
Of this, $370,000 is for the Shoreside facility .
Mr. Chairman, as previously announced under the
auspices of the Bermuda Economic Development
Corporation [BEDC], we are renewing the effort to
create a fishing co- operative for Bermuda. This alloc ation will compl ement the ongoing stakeholder consu ltation and work being done with local fishermen by
providing the funding required to revise the existing
plans for the facility, including additional site studies
and other preparatory works. The aim is to improve
the economic fortunes of fishermen, improve acces s
to market of local fish and promote fishing as a viable career inside of Bermuda .
A capital grant for the Bermuda Economic
Development Corporation in the amount of $1 million
to support the creation of an Uptown Development Agency . Mr. Chairman, North H amilton has been the
subject of much discussion and some action over many years. The area north of Victoria Street retains unique but untapped cultural appeal. There is an opportunity to enhance North Hamilton, and through this
allocation the Government is determined to support
the work of those who are invested in the area and
whose interests are connected to its revival.
Mr. Chairman, it is important to note that we
recall that in September this House passed amendments to the Bermuda Immigration and Prot ection Act
to create approved residential schemes inside of our
economic empowerment zones. The job of the U ptown Development Agency will be to get those partic ular aspects moving ahead, and recruitment, Mr. Chairman, is already under way from the Bermuda


Bermuda House of Assembly Economic Development Corporation to ensur e that
this body can be up and running as quickly as poss ible in the next fiscal year.
It is important to me personally as the Minister
responsible for Economic Development that we do get
construction going inside of the economic empowerment zones, specifically regarding the approved res idential schemes which were approved by this House.
And this body as going to be driving that matter
ahead. And that is the reason why specifically funding
was assigned to that body, to make sure those things
can advance. Because what oftentimes happens, Mr.
Chairman, is that if you do not have funding and ded icated funding put towards tasks , sometimes those
tasks do not happen.
Mr. Chairman, $500,000 is provided for
Grants to Community Clubs. Mr. Chairman, Berm uda’s top- flight sportsmen and women often emerged
from the youth development programmes of the I sland’s community clubs. These venues have nurtured
a community spirit and a friendly rivalry that adds a
much -needed lift t o the mundane Monday -to-Friday
many of us lead. Committed members do what they can, but more help is needed. Through these grants,
the Government will provide assistance with infr astructure and security upgrades so that the buildings can mirror the immense pride that members and supporters have.
Mr. Chairman, t here also exists Capital Acqu isition funding in the amount of $4,000 set aside for
office furniture and equipment.
Before I turn my attention to Output
Measures, Mr. Chairman, I would like to recognise
that $370,000 for a shoreside facility, $1 million for the
creation of the Uptown Development Agency , and
$500,000 for Grants to Community Clubs are the exact opposite of what I would regard as status quo
budget.

OUTPUT MEASURES

Hon. E. David Burt: Moving on to Output Measures.
The performance measures developed in the Cabinet
Office are found on page B -46 and B -47.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. E. David Burt: You have to agree with me a
little bit Craig.

[Laughter]
Hon. E. David Burt: The majority of measures outlined in the 2019/20 [budget] have been or are antic ipated to be reali sed by March 31
st, with continuance
throughout the 2019/20 period.
Of note to mention, the Occupational Safety
and Health Unit , 19020, has forecasted a rate of co mpliance of 85 per cent for all ministries and depar t-ments across the public service to establish and mai ntain properly constituted and functioning Workplace
Safety and Health Committees.
The anticipated rate of compliance firstly r eflects the actual i ntent and operational focus of the
Office of the Safety and Health Coordinator for the
2019/20 period. Secondly, the compliance rate is expected to be achieved via continuous reali sed improvements in management and employee workplace safety and health educ ation. Thirdly, increased monitoring of workplace safety and health and general
workplace activities across the entire public service on
a sustained basis by the Office of the Safety and
Health Coordinator has occurred and will continue in
2020/21 with the support of the representative bodies
for public officers.
Mr. Chairman, turning our attention to Bus iness Unit 19080 on page B -47, I would like to expand
on the second measure, Developing a Five-Year Public Service Plan , which requires the review and justification of services provided by the government by
June 2020.
Phase 1 of the data- gathering process for this
initiative was achieved through the budget development process. The zero-based budgeting [ ZBB] form
was used to gather data to evaluate servi ces across
government , along with specific weighted criteria
which also looked at risks and consequences of not
providing the various services , as well as the possible
alternatives to directly providing the service.
The data is now being analysed with a view to
prioritis ing all service s and placing them into categories of perceived importance to the public. Consult ation will commence following the prioriti sation process.
This is a complex multi -phased process which will u ltimately result in a roadmap for the provision of g overnment services in the future.
Mr. Chairman, please also allow me to expand on the last measure, the first cohort to begin the
Leadership Programme by October 1st, 2020. Currently, the public s ervice lacks an organi sed leadership
programme, making it difficult to ensure a candidate
pool is available for vacating senior and executive
posts. A Talent Management Task Force [TMTF ] was
set up to address this and other talent challenges as
part of the People component of the Government R eform initiative. The goal of the pilot leadership pr ogramme is to prepare candidates for the opportunity to
compete for Permanent Secretary and Head of D epartment posts once they become vacant.
Candidates will be selected through manager
or peer nominati on. Candidates will then qualify for
participation through job requirement comparison, assessment against the Government of Bermuda lea dership competencies, performance appraisal review
and, finally , an interview. Development activities will
be tracked a nd customi sed development plans pr epared for each participant. Activities will include
coursework, acting or reassignment opportunities , and
3224 2 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly a capstone assignment involving a project and/or
management issue.
Mr. Chairman, you would have heard me
speak about the need to develop leaders in the public
service before. There is an intense amount of work
that is happening inside of the public service reform,
more of which I will get to in the brief. But this is
something that I think is particularly important, and I
am personally happy that it is going to be realise d this
year.

PLANS FOR THE UPCOMING YEAR
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, I would like to
highlight a few of the plans for the 2020/21 upcoming
year.

As seen on page B -43, under the General
Programme, the Commission of Inquiry has been all ocated $325,000. Pursuant to the Commissions of I nquiry Act 1935, on November 1st, 2019, I announced
the appointment of members of the Commission of
Inquiry into historic losses in Bermuda of citizens’
property.
The establishment of this Commission of I nquiry is in keeping with the mandate of the House of
Assembly as expressed in its Resolution o n the 4th of
July 2014.
The scope of the Commission’s work is as
follows:
1. inquire into histori c losses of citizens’ property
in Bermuda through theft of property, dispos-session of property, adverse possession
claims and/or such other unlawful or irregular means by which land was lost in Bermuda;
2. collect and collate any and all evidence and
information available relating to the nature
and extent of such historic losses of citizens’
property;
3. prepare a list of all land to which such historic
losses relate; and
4. identify any persons, whether individuals or
bodies corporate, responsible for such historic losses of citizens’ property.
Mr. Chairman,
the Chair of the Commission is
Justice Norma Wade- Miller OBE, JP. Its members are
Hon. Wayne Perinchief, a former Minister of National Security and former Assistant Commissioner of Police;
Mrs. Maxine B inns, a corporate legal counsel; Mrs.
Frederica Forth , a former banking executive and an
experienced realtor; Mrs. Lynda Milligan- Whyte, senior counsel practicing at the Bermuda Bar; Mr. Jonathan Starling, Economic and Cooperative Development Officer with the BEDC ; and Mr. Quinton Stovell,
who is a quantity surveyor.
Mr. Chairman, the Commission has commenced the process to allow for members of the public to make submissions. And t he Commission is confident that it can do the required work , and given its composition, I am equally confident that it will deliver
on this very important mandate.
Mr. Chairman, continuing with the General
Programme, the Head of the Public Service: Efforts
continue to realising the vision of a future- forward
Government for the people of Bermuda as expressed
in our Government Reform initiative. In accordance
with the strategic roadmap for government reform,
more than 160 middle and senior technical officers
completed a series of strategic alignment and performance measurement wor kshops. Output from these
workshops is evidenced in the Estimates of Revenue
and Expenditure Blue Book for the fiscal year 2020/21
that is now before this Honourable Chamber.
The workshops were key in assisting business
unit managers with aligning their r espective depar tment’s mission with the Government’s vision and to
develop performance measures which are aligned
with their governance priority for the 2020/21 fiscal
year. So the Honourable Member for constituency
number 23, who has an intense focus on p erformance
measures, this year would have seen a change in
some of them.
Mr. Chairman, to help determine the future of
government’s service delivery, an in- depth asses sment of government services is required. The datagathering phase was completed as part of the budgeting process and the output will form a five- year public
services plan. Simultaneously, programme management for the government reform initiative is laser -
focused on two priority areas —our people and our
technology.
It is expected that techno logy will drive
change in the public service. One of our goals is to
achieve 100 per cent paperless processing by 2023. A
paperless task force comprising a number of technical
officers with expertise in various disciplines from
across government is activel y engaging in delivering
solutions. The task force has implemented a web content management system and web application fram ework to spearhead Phase 1, which is the digitalisation
of government forms. The first forms will be rolled out
this month in the Department of Health and the Regi stry General.
Following successful completion of this pilot
and demo phase, it is expected that officers in de-partments with customer forms will be identified and
trained to use the software, which will enable individ ual departments to build digital forms themselves wit hout the need for external consulting resources. All
digital forms will be made available through the go vernment portal.
Mr. Chairman, achieving paperless processes
is a multi- phased initiative. Phase 2 is the digitalis ation of files to transform paper records in various formats into standardised digital format, seamlessly sy nchronising content and processes between premise,
mobile and the cloud. I will say that one more time
because it is a mouthful. Phase 2 i s the digitalisation


Bermuda House of Assembly of files to transform paper records in various formats
into a standardised digital format which will seamles sly synchronise content and processes between onpremise, mobile and in the cloud, which means that
they could be accessed in t he office, on mobile
phones or from any location as long as persons have
the security access to get access to the various documents.
Phases 1 and 2 will be underpinned by the
roll-out of paperless principles to ensure the alignment
of institutional and st aff capabilities across gover nment.
With regard to the people component of the
reform initiative, the Government is actively engaged
in transforming the way that we deliver human r esource services. The amalgamation of the 12 service
units and departments commenced in the current fi scal year will continue. A chief employee and organis ational development officer has now been appointed.
Meanwhile, the talent management task force
is in the process of reviewing learning- anddevelopment programmes across all m inistries and
departments and will implement a centralised training
platform which will be accessible to all public officers.
Mr. Chairman, further to a review and recommendations of the Management Consulting Section, there is now a new PATI/PIPA Unit wi thin the Cabinet
Office. The Government of Bermuda is committed to
safeguarding and facilitating the right to privacy. The mission of the Government’s Privacy Programme is to
enable and support the appropriate use and admi nistration of personal information [PI] without risking the
privacy of individuals, while fostering a privacy -aware
culture.
The Government of Bermuda interacts with
the public by collecting and exchanging data, using physical and electronic methods, in the course of conducting everyday business processes. The PATI/PIPA
Unit, which has been allocated $689,000, will provide
the framework for policy, implementation support, i nternal guidance and training associated with collection, use, disclosure, access, correction, retention,
disposal and responsible use of personal information
in the course of government processes and services.
The unit will also work with the Office of the Privacy
Commissioner to support the jurisdiction’s application for adequacy with the European Union [EU] and to
prom ote and build awareness of privacy in the community.
As briefly mentioned, there has been a separation of the Personal Information Protection Act 2016
(PIPA) from the former ICT Policy and Innovation D epartment, as well as the Public Access to Information
Act from the Policy and Strategy Section already wit hin Cabinet Office. The PATI/PIPA Unit takes on a
mandate of PATI and PIPA implementation within the Government and coordination of the respective pieces
of legislation. This unit will also work in coll aboration with the Offices of the Information Commissioner and
the Privacy Commissioner.
Mr. Chairman
, the PIPA harmoni sation exercise requires the review of the existing legislation as
individual laws may contain aspects related to personal information a nd/or data privacy which is now
superseded by PIPA. In line with this need, a signif icant harmonisation exercise has taken place with the
PATI legislation. Amendments will be brought forward
during this legislative session.
Privacy is a rapidly developing area globally,
and the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe has resulted in some suggested amendments to our PIPA Act. Further, the
European Data Protection Board has issued updated
instructions on the conduct of EU data protection adequacy reviews. As Bermuda wishes to pursue an adequacy ruling from that board, additional changes to
PIPA have been identified and will shortly be brought forward for the consideration of Honourable Members.
Mr. Chairman, privacy is affected by information technology security, or cybersecurity, which is
the protection of electronic data from criminal or unau-thorised access and use. As privacy intersects with cybersecurity, the PATI/PIPA Unit will work in collaboration with the Ministry of National Security to support
the implementation of the Bermuda Cybersecurity Strategy. The unit will support the strategy by helping
to introduce a bespoke cybersecurity certification
scheme for Bermuda. This scheme will be based on
Cyber Essentials, a world -leading, cost -effective assurance certification for organisations of all sizes. Cyber Essentials, which is supported by the UK’s N ational Cyber Security Centre, helps to demonstrate to consumers and other stakeholders that the most i mportant basic technic al cybersecurity controls have
been implemented.
The PATI/PIPA Unit also intends to include an
assessment against PIPA as an option for users. This
is important. Local organisations will be able to pursue
a path to become a certification body, allowing t hem
to offer services as local assessors and ensuring that
Bermuda develops and retains the skills within the
jurisdiction. This programme will aid in both cybers ecurity and privacy education awareness, and will help
organisations, particularly small, medi um-sized and
charitable entities, to develop safeguards for the most
common cyber -threats.
Mr. Chairman, as we move down to the Ec onomic Policy and Foreign Affairs Programme on page
B-43 we see that it has been allocated a total of
$1,573,000.
The London Office has a budget allocation of
$1,120,000 for the 2020/21 fiscal year. This office
continues to provide valuable service to the Gover nment by maintaining our relationship and a high level
of dialogue with the UK Government, particularly
through increased engagement with government departments across Whitehall. While doing so, this office
3226 2 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly works in cohesion with departments of the Overseas
Territories on shared policy areas across territories.
The London Office is responsible for engaging
with both Hous es of Parliament; the UK diplomatic
corps, such as embassies and high commissions; the
United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association; the
Commonwealth Secretariat, along with all UK -based
Commonwealth Associations; Bermudians living in the
UK including s tudents; the general UK public to i nclude private companies, civil societies and those who have a general or vested interest in Bermuda. The primary function of the London Office for the fiscal
term 2019/20 was to continue to monitor the reput ational risk to Bermuda and defend Bermuda’s regul atory regimes to the UK and Europe, ensuring Berm uda upholds our global competitive standard while monitoring the progress of the United Kingdom’s exit
from the European Union.
Mr. Chairman, the functions of the London Office for the fiscal term 2020/21 are as follows:
• to enhance Bermuda’s presence across the
UK Parliament by proactively engaging with
new and returning MP ’s from the December
2019 General Election;
• to manage Bermuda’s policy engagement with
UK civil servants relating to all matters as a
result of Brexit during the transitional period;
• to support Bermuda’s financial services r egime, particularly on beneficial ownership;
• to participate at the COP26 S ummit in Gla sgow to showcase efforts from Bermuda and
the U nited Kingdom Overseas Territories in
tackling climate change and;
• to implement political commitments made
through the Joint Ministerial Council in March
2019.
Mr. Chairman, it should be noted that the
London Office team continues to lead the Gover nment’s effort to return the BMU code to Bermuda passports. It will be recalled that in October of last
year, the Minister [of National Security] met with the
then- Home Office Minister responsible for this area.
Since that time, both the Minister for the Home Office and the Minister for the Overseas Territories have
changed, but we continue to press the issue with
some urgency. It will be front and centre as part of the agenda of the Joint Ministerial C ouncil to be held in
London later this month.
I will also state, Mr. Chairman, that there was
a delegation from the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office who was on- Island last week, and that matter
was raised again with those particular persons, as
well as His Excellency the Governor asking for an update, given that the time for the new Ministers to consider these matters has now come.
The London Office is the Government’s official
consular service to Bermudians living and studying in the United Kingdom and Europe. The range of imm ediate, and on occasion urgent, assistance required from the office is diverse. Throughout the years the
London Office has identified key contacts amongst
officials in the United Kingdom and therefore is able to
deal with urgent situations effectively, either in the UK
or through British embassies across Europe.
The London Office budget has allocation for
three postings: the Director and UK Representative,
and two administrative staff. There is no intention to
increase the number of positions in the London Office
(as it relates to the Cabinet Office) for this fiscal year. The London Office also provides experience to st udents and graduates through the Cabinet Office i nternship programme.
Mr. Chairman, the DC Office shows an alloc ation in the amount of $61,000, and this is for rent expense only. While consideration was given to term inating the lease, doing so before term would have
been cost prohibitive. To mitigate the costs pending
the revamping of the office it has been deemed to
sublet it in accordance with the existing lease. It is
important to note, Mr. Chairman, that the $61,000 rep-resents rent expense only. The items for the upkeep of the office are then moved to the Professional Services budget, which is outlined in the Profes sional
Services budget. And the $61,000 does not reflect the
net amount of money which will come due to the subleasing, as the sublease is in progress. So there will
be a revised figure to represent what the actual net outlay is that the Government is payi ng due to the
sublease.

Mr. Chairman, on the direction of the Go vernment’s priorities, the fiscal term 2019/20 saw the
opening of the Brussels Office in January 2019 to
complement the London Office in ensuring greater outreach in Europe. The objective of the Brussels O ffice is to maintain relationships with key stakeholders
and decisionmakers on the ground in Brussels while
establishing new connections in complementing the
work which has been done in the past.
With the United Kingdom’s exit from the Eur opean Union, the objectives of the Brussels Office for
fiscal term 2020/21 will be as follows:
• to maintain close dialogue with the European
Commission [, Council] and European Parli ament;
• to facilitate access of the Premier and Mini sters to key persons in upholding the Gover nment’s presence in Europe; and
• to work under the direction of the Ministry of Finance in working with the European Com-mission and Council for the Government’s pr iority in Europe being compliant with the EU
economic substance regime.
The Brussels Office is managed by the UK
representative through the London Office. The work
on the ground is overseen by the EU representative with assistance from graduates and students who
have gained experience through the Cabinet Office
internship progr amme. The Office has been allocated


Bermuda House of Assembly a total of $392,000 in this upcoming fiscal year. And,
Mr. Chairman, as I noted, the existing representative
for the Brussels Office will be transitioning out of her
role at the end of September, and we will be looking t o
fill that role with someone new. And it will most likely
be one of the Bermudians who has been working in
Brussels and in that office and is likely to able to transition into that role effectively.
Mr. Chairman, at this time I would like to take
my opportunity to extend my thanks to all of the staff
at the Cabinet Office for their ongoing contributions and dedication to servicing the people of Bermuda.
That, Mr. Chairman, concludes my present ation on Head 09.
I would like to move with your permission now
to Head 43, the Office of Information and Digital
Technologies.

Continue.

HEAD 43 —OFFICE OF INFORMATION
AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman.
It gives me pleasure to present the budget for
Head 43, the Department of Information and Digital
Technologies, found on pages B -62 to B -65 of the
Budget Book.

Mission

Hon. E. David Burt: The department’s mission is to
provide secure information and digital services that streamlines processes to facilitate the Government’s
strategic business objectives.
The department seeks to fulfil its mandate by
empowering ministries, departments and civil servants
to improve productivity and services by providing I T
consulting services and core IT infrastructure at a rea-sonable cost. Furthermore, we work with departments
and ministries to identify and progress opportunities
for the creation and deployment of online content, transactions, systems and services that meet the
needs of government, citizens, businesses and the
volunteer sector.

Expenditure Overview

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, the total current
expenditure of the Department of Information and Di gital Technologies [IDT] found on page B -62 is estima ted to be $7,013,000 for fiscal year 2020/21, which is an increase of $386,000 more than 2019/20 fiscal
year.
Mr. Chairman, the subjective analysis of current account estimates of the Department of Infor-mation and Digital Technologies is found on page B -
63. The focus will be on the three line items with the greatest absolute change. Salaries, line item one, i ncreased by $430,000, or 11 per cent, due primarily to
four posts being transferred from Communications
and Information to IDT.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for Other Personnel
Costs, line item three, increased by $8,000, or 13 per cent, and this is mainly attributed to growing demand
and need for on- call and overtime supporting IT i mprovements, project work and break –fix incidents.
Mr. Chairman, the budge t for Communic ations, line item six, decreased by $48,000, or 3 per
cent. This is due in part to ongoing data cost reductions that accommodate increased IDT spend in other
areas.

Capital Expenditure
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, the capital alloc ation for the Department of Information and Digital
Technologies can be found on page C -10 and makes
provision for new capital expenditure in the amount of
$3,575,000, an increase of $1,635,000. This funding will be used for upgrading to newer software licences,
enhanced IT security systems, digitisation projects
(which we had mentioned previously as part of go vernment reform) and implementing a new telephone
system, and the development of new digitised bus iness systems to enhance our server capacity and to
accommodate growth.

Manpower

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, the Manpower for
the Department of Digital and Information Technol ogies on page B -63 increased from 39 fulltime equiv alents to 43 in 2020/21. Presently, there are four funded vacant positions, and recruitment is currently u nderway. The department aims to fill these positions
within the budget year. It should be noted that the manpower change, Mr. Chairman, is a result of transfer of portal posts from Communications over to IDT.

Output Measures

Hon. E. David Burt: The Department of Information
and Digital Technologies Output Measures are found
on page B -64 and B -65 of the Budget Book. Selected
indicators under each Business Unit are outlined as
follows:

Business Unit 53030: Device Support
Hon. E. David Burt: Indicator: Resolve and repair
service tickets within service level targets. Target for 2019/20 —85 per cent were forecasted to be completed within service level target. Actual outcome was achieved within the service level target due primarily
to recruitment in this section, which is now fully
staffed. The target for 2020/21 is 85 per cent due in
3228 2 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly part to the implementation of modernised device
management systems and desktop upgrades.

Business Unit 53035: Network Support
Hon. E. David Burt: Indicator: Network monitoring,
resolve, repair and service tickets within service level targets. Target of 85 per cent was forecasted, and the
actual outcome of 85 per cent was achieved due to
telephone system stabilisation initiative related to telephone incidents. The target going forward is the same, 85 per cent.

Business Unit 53040: Service Support

Hon. E. David Burt: Indicator: Manage tickets and
resolve account administration within service level
targets. Target for 2019/20—95 per cent was for ecasted, and the actual outcome was achieved, due in
part to a fully manned service desk. The target for 2020/21 is 95 per cent completion within service level target due to continued rollout of self -service online
tools.

Business Unit 53060: Business Systems Sup port

Hon. E. David Burt: Indicator: Conduct routine
mont hly service level review meetings with key departments, annual review of service level targets with
departments and managing of application support
tickets. The target was 85 per cent forecasted. The
target which was actually achieved was 80 per, cent
due in part to reduction in fulltime equivalents and f ocus on recruitment in this unit.

One second.
I am trying to hear the Premier.
Continue.

Hon. E. David Burt: The target for 2020/21 is 85 per
cent due in part to the introduction of a new IT gov-ernance model and recruitment of vacant posts.

Business Unit 53050: Digital Services
Hon. E. David Burt: Indicator: Consulting and advi sing, and public satisfaction with availability of use and selection of online government services. Target for
2019/20 —70 per cent was forecasted. Actual outcome
in 2018/19 of 70 per cent was achieved due in part to additional fulltime equivalents working in this unit,
which is now fully staffed.
The target for 2020/21 is 80 per cent due in
part to the addition of two new bus iness process analysts and progress on paperless, eID and ePayment initiatives.


Business Unit 53090: Security

Hon. E. David Burt: Indicator: Disaster recovery exercises planned and execut ed, servers checked on a
monthly basis. Target for 2019/20 —50 per cent was
forecasted, and the actual outcome did match.

[Gavel]

Continue, Premier.

Hon. E. David Burt: Actual outcome in 2019/20 was
50 per cent due in part to the Accountant General’s
focus on developin g and implementing the new E1
system. The target for 2020/21 is 50 per cent, as all of
E1 upgrades have completed the IDT and, working
along with the Accountant General, will focus on coordinating and executing a full disaster recovery exer-cise.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

Hon. E. David Burt: The Department of Information
and Digital Technologies will continue with the deve lopment of its core services in the upcoming year by
focusing on eight key strategic areas:
1. Infrastructure stability and secure network.
Work in this area will progress by enhancing the go vernment departments’ network inter -building comm unications performance by doubling bandwidth r equirements and is anticipated to continue over the
next two years. This will impact more than 140 loc ations across the Island. Further, IDT will continue to
roll out self -service systems such as account pas sword management and improve the overall network
security with state- of-the art artificial intelligence [AI]
security monitoring and management systems .
The department will introduce a new phone
system to replace the current aged and now unstable
phone system and to reduce the need for traditional
phone sets, with the introduction of a voice app, which will be accessible on any device from anywhere that
has access to the Internet. This work will continue
over a two- year period.
IDT will focus on leveraging the use of cloud
services to facilitate the delivery of specific applic ations with far less technical complexity and reduce the
need to rely upon str ained IDT engineering resources,


Bermuda House of Assembly thereby allowing IDT to focus more on business value
and less on complex IT engineering builds.
2. Budget Efficiency Initiative. Work has
commenced on streamlining specific core IT services
to achieve greater economies of scale through ongo-ing renegotiation of vendor service agreements or
leveraging existing service/product agreements
across Government. This process will ultimately serve
to reduce IT cost of operations for the government
when compared to disparate or silo s ervice agreements. In addition, IDT has investigated inexpensive
personal computing devices (PC’s) which will perform
the same task as more expensive name brand models.
3. IT Governance. The implementation of the
new IT Governance Policy will result in ID T overseeing all IT projects and acquisitions. This will ensure
that IT purchases and the business needs are properly aligned, thereby creating greater efficiencies within
government and strengthening government's return on
investment and the fit between t echnology and bus iness operations. This new policy is in line with the
Bermuda First recommendations to streamline IT
government processes. Additionally, there will be further IT restructuring within the government, transferring federated IT posts that exi st in various gover nment departments to IDT.
Mr. Chairman, those items have not been r eflected in this Budget Book because they have not yet
been done and passed through Cabinet. But this is
the plan for this upcoming year.
Many of these posts do not require fulltime r esources, as system upgrades and newer software offerings have reduced the need for dedicated IT staff in
departments. The transferring of these posts will allow
for departmental applications to continue to be supported while additional effort can be lent to gover nmentwide IT priorities.
4. ePayment. This year IDT will roll out online
payment capabilities for a variety of government services. IDT will continue working in conjunction with
Education, Youth and Sport and the Accountant Ge neral cash desk on a standardised ePayment toolbox
so that online payments can be easily integrated into
existing applications and reconciled directly with the
Accountant General’s Enterprise One system. The auto reconciliation will make the process of receiving
online payments more efficient, as it will eliminate the
need for re- entering online transactions into the accounting system.
5. Electronic Identification (eID). IDT, in conjunction with the FintTech team, has been advancing
the eID project. An eID is essentially a single- user
identification to be used by the citizens of Bermuda
which is linked to various government business sy stems across numerous databases. A partner was s elected for an electronic ID (eID) service proof of con-cept for digitising the p aper-intensive and timeconsuming KYC [know your customer] process. The development phase will culminate at the end of April
2020 with a live demonstration of the technology i nvolving Government, local utilities, a local bank and
law firms, and will be coordinated with the Bermuda
Monetary Authority to ensure that the approach sati sfies regulatory requirements. Following the demonstration of the proof of concept, phase 2 of the eID
project will commence.
6. Training. IDT has committed to enhancing
staff skillset to better serve the government IT user
base, and a specific focus has been placed on project management professional [PMP] training and certific ation. The PMP certification will ensure IDT staff are
adept at managing IT governance and will lead IT project implementation by reducing the need for external
IT and project management consultants and directly
assist departments with key IT project management initiatives.
7. Enhanced Collaboration. IDT has identified,
and now is in the process of field testing, a unified
communications system which will, amongst other
things, allow government departments to interact and collaborate on one document and share ideas with a
team in real time.
8. Telecom cost savings. IT Governance will
allow IDT to have ov ersight of current disparate tel ephone systems and determine which of these systems
qualify for migration and consolidation onto the IDT -
managed centralised phone service. As IDT moves
forward with plans to introduce a new phone service, it
is anticipated that some of the identified fragmented
budget will be used to fund this project and in doing so will reduce the government’s overall telecom oper ational budget requirements. Mr. Chairman, information technology drives
innovation, and innovation is the path to business
success. In 2019/20, IDT underwent a comprehensive
review by Management and Consulting Services to
ensure proper alignment of resources and structure that would meet the government’s ever -growing IT
demands to deliver, as we seek to maximise efficiency
with the use of technology, staffing and service deli very. The IDT has developed a phase 1 right -sizing
plan to hire new recruits within the department to faci litate current IT workload which is placed on strained IDT resources.
Mr. Chairman, this year will be an important
year for the Information and Digital Technologies D epartment. With a significantly enhanced capital bud get, the department will be expected to deliver on IT
improvements which will make the government more efficient. To ensure that the department can deliver on
its revised mandate that emerged from the aforementioned Management Services review, recruitment is
currently underway for a substantive Chief Information
Officer [CIO], who will sit on the Public Service Exec utive to ensure the delivery of the government’s IT
strategy throughout the entire organisation.
3230 2 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the acting CIO, Mr. Shawn Lightbourne,
and the entire Information and Digital Technologies
staff for thei r excellent service that they continue to
provide to the Government during a period of constrained IT spending. It is my expectation that with the
changes to the department as a result of the MCS
review, the new IT governance processes, better
alignment of IT resources throughout government and
increased investment IT systems, the department will be successful in better delivering IT services to the Government.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This concludes my
budget presentation for Head 43. And I will ask, wit h
your permission, to hand it over to the Minister for the Cabinet Office, who will present on Head 80.

Continue.

HEAD 80 —OFFICE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
AND PROCUREMENT

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Good morning, Mr. Chai rman.
Mr. Chairman, it gives me great pleasure to
present the budget for Head 80, the Office of Project
Management and Procurement [OPMP], found on
pages B -75 through B -77 of the blue Budget Book.
Mission

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Chairman, the mission of
the Office of Project Management and Procurement
[OPMP] is to provide oversight and guidance in public
management and procurement and to ensure transparency and value for money.

Expenditure Overview
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Chairman, when we look
at expenditure, the total current expenditure is est imated to be $930,000 for 2020/21. There is no i ncrease in the budget from the previous year, [no] i ncreas e or decrease from the previous year.

Capital Expenditure

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: The total of $1,000 is all ocated for capital expenditure for 2020/21 as found on
page C -10 of the Budget Book. As indicated in the
Budget Book, these funds are for the purchase of
much -needed desktop PC's.
Manpower

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Chairman, there are no
additional funds budgeted for Manpower for 2020/21.
Mr. Chairman, there are two vacancies within
the established posts. The office comprises eight pr ofessio nals, including director, procurement manager,
senior project manager, two project managers, quant ity surveyor, contracts and compliance manager, and
administrative assistant. These professionals have
experience in procurement, project management, quantity surveying, contracts, compliance and admi nistration.

Output Measures

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: When we look at the output,
Mr. Chairman, the office’s performance measures for
2019/20 are set out on page B -78 of the Budget Book
and are as follows:
1. Assist public authorities to save, reduce or
avoid 5 per cent of costs in managing capital projects.
The office has implemented the Code of Practice for
Project Management and Procurement and is in the
process of implementing guidelines for managing capital pro jects. It is anticipated that over time cost savings will be realised by the introduction of a con-sistent, standardised approach to project delivery. There is a significant opportunity to increase the use
of effective practices in planning and managing the
expenditure of public funds to complete capital pr ojects to ensure that value for money is achieved. And
it is up to the public authorities to ensure that it is
done.
2. Deliver a report on the operation of the office during the preceding year within thr ee months
after the calendar year [ends], which was done.
3. Provide training to at least five public authorities on project management and procurement
best practices. The office delivered training to nine
technical officers who procure goods and services on
behalf of the government on the current rules and best
practices the government has implemented to saf eguard the public purse, the Code of Practice for Pr oject Management and Procurement.
The office provides training to 34 public offi cers and has 168 r egistered members within the code
being discussed during these sessions. Officers are
being introduced to project management best practi ces including guidelines for project management, through 21 dedicated training sessions, [with] roughly 79 candidates in volved.
4. Perform five project management, pr ocurement and contract compliance audits on capital projects. No audits were performed during the course
of the year.
5. Assist public authorities to achieve 5 per
cent cost savings by implementing procurement stra tegies which leverage the government’s purchasing


Bermuda House of Assembly power. In support of the government’s efforts to pr ovide for and promote the efficient delivery of public
services, the office is assisting public authorities as
part of the reform committee with the mobile phone,
fuel and uniform contracts, which are ongoing.

Current Year Achievements

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Some current year achiev ements, Mr. Chairman—the office with foresight Planning and Cooperation initiated and collaborated with
the Department of Workforce Development, CedarBridge, the Ministry of Public Works and the Depar tment of Planning to execute the Professional Student Relationship Programme. Over 25 technical officers and various private contractors participated in the
nine-month programme, delivering workshops, pr oducing experiential learning activities and hosting construction and facility site visits.
In total, 56 students were in attendance from
2017 to 2019. Sessions covered quantity surveying,
project management, engineering, plum bing, craft smanship and many more.
Twenty -two students from CedarBridge Academy and Impact Academy are currently registered.
Through the help of professionals, our young people
are better placed in the world of work for further edu-cation with additional r esources, more private and
public skilled benefits.
I just want to touch a little bit more on that. As
I said, the actual budget for the department is
$930,000. This is on page B -75. And B -76 gives a
breakdown of it. So you see that the actual amount for
last year was $877,000 for salaries. The revised
amount is $877,000. And again, $877,000 is the
budget for this year.
Personnel costs, no change, $3,000. Training,
no change, $8,000. Travel, no change, $7,000. Com-munications, no change, $8,000. Rentals, $1,000, no
change from last year and even the previous year.
Repairs and maintenance, $4,000. That has come
down significantly from 2018/19 when the repairs and
maintenance was $58,000. It is down to $4,000 right now. And materials and supplies, $22,000, ma king
$930,000 in total expenditure, which is no change at all from last year.
Staffing, that is the full -time equivalent, is
eight staff. Last year revised, eight, and eight the estimate from 2020/21.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Chairman, we are looking to make some changes in OPMP to make it more
effective and more efficient.
You may recall, and I mentioned before that in
the Code of Practice, it states that “ A government’s
aim is to use its purchase power to promote equalit y
of opportunity with regard to disability, gender and race; facilitate the establishment of a more level pla ying field and diverse contractor base by ensuring to
specify businesses ” (and I will define what that is in a
few minutes) “ have access to an opportunity to win
government contracts; and to work with local contracts
to support the local economy .”
I would like to touch first on specified bus iness . This comes out of the procurement. The whole
part about specified business, Mr. Chairman, has
been defi ned as the Bermudian- owned and owner -
operated business enterprise with gross annual sales
of less than $1 million, or an annual payroll of less
than $500,000. And the whole premise of that, as we
said in the Code of Practice, is to ensure that spec ified businesses have access to opportunity. There
has been no way at all to measure how much small
businesses have been able . . . what the government
has been given. We have now put in place a code, so
every small business has a code, and I will use Code
1 as an example, which identifies small businesses.
This has never been done before. So now the go vernment can actually print out how many small bus inesses on dollar value actually get the contracts.
But we must go a little further than that, Mr.
Chairman. Because what we said at the very begi nning, that a government’s aim is to use its purchasing
power to promote equality of opportunity with regard
to disability, gender and race. And unless you have a method of measuring that, you cannot know whether
you fulfilled your objective and what your goal is. So
very soon, we are working also on the idea of how to
put those businesses in those categories —disability,
gender and race. We already have, under the thres hold of the matrix of allowing . . . by measuring the . . .
On the matrix there are five codes. So let us
give an example, Mr. Chairman. If myself and the
Honourable Member Patricia Gordon- Pamplin were to
go for a contract, she would end up probably with a 5
because of her gender and because she has been more disadvantaged in the past. She may get a 5 and
I may end up with a 1. But, Mr. Chairman, if, based on
the race part, I am up against, and I will use my good
friend Michael Dunkley as an example . . . now, r emember there are 100 points in the whole aspect of it.
So we may end up if I am going up as a small bus iness, because I fit under [the threshold of] $500,000
and fit there, I will end up as a 5 based on race, and
Michael Dunkley may end up with a zero. But he may
beat me on other aspects from above or the other
part, as far as being . . . that fit the matrix.
So these are things that the Government is
working on to improve and to ensure that the pr ocurement and the whole idea of giving opportunity to
small businesses and those who have been disadvantaged in the past will be accounted for.
Mr. Chairman, we are also looking to raise the
threshold. The threshold that Government has been using in the past has been very, very low. When we
compare ourselves with where everybody, you know,
3232 2 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly speaks so highly of, t he Cayman Islands, our thres hold has been much lower than the Cayman Islands.
And so what we are doing is looking to raise the
thresholds and give more flexibility within ministries
themselves, but still being checked by the procur ement, obviously.
At the end of the day, I view procurement as,
like myself as a former auditor, I come in, I check to see whether the company or the Ministry has complied with the instructions that have been given. So
not everything will be actually authorised by the Office of Project Management. The whole idea is to give advice and go from there, and to make sure that things
are being followed.
Mr. Chairman, the office will increase its efforts to provide oversight of capital projects. Also, Mr.
Chairman, you will be aware of c hange orders. Som etimes, government has to move much more quickly when it comes to a change order. I use the example
that was up in Dockyard. If we had not moved quickly,
that would have cost the government much more money. So working with the Accountant G eneral and
the Office of Project Management, we will be raising the threshold on change orders to ensure that we
move much more quickly than we have in the past. I
still have those checks and balances in place.
The office will increase its efforts to prov ide
oversight of capital projects. This will be accomplished by ensuring that policies and procedures for tendering
are followed. To do this, Code of Practice training
sessions, training sessions will be held during the next
fiscal year.
The office will continue to advise and guide
public officers on procurement and project management best practices so as to raise the level of expertise in these areas across the government. The office
has diligently worked to provide oversight of all go vernment procurement.
Let me take this opportunity, Mr. Chairman, to
acknowledge (of course, she is not here today) Acting
Director, Elaine Blair -Christopher, but the Acti ngActing , Mr. Fox, is here in the Chambers. And the
hardworking and dedicated staff of the Office of P roject Management and Procurement.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This concludes my
budget presentation for Head 80.

Thank you, Honourable Minister.
Are there any further speakers?
You have 55 minutes.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes. Thank you, thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Let me first start off by saying I did quite e njoy, as the Premier presented some of the information
throughout the heads in Cabinet Office, some of the details which were given. I much appreciated it, and I
am sure the public tryi ng to understand exactly what it
is sometimes that we do, some of the terms like iSeries , they do not understand this stuff. To listen a
little more about that from the Premier is very, very
helpful. Understanding also he is a bit of a techie.
Sometimes he might forget that he wants to break it
down. And he did.

[Laughter]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: So we are grateful for that.
So, starting off with Cabinet Office, and of
course Head 09, it became evident to me . . . on page
B-42 I noticed that some of the department objectives
had changed. And as you take a look at some of those changes, for instance, the second heading
says, “Delivery, efficiency and effective services, the
Premier, Ministers and Cabinet,” it has been shor tened as to what it was before. And then if you go to
the next one, it says, “Enhance the performance of
public value,” there is a significant difference in what
was there before. And then of course the next heading
is shortened. And we go right thr ough there.
It will be good to hear from the Premier exac tly what was the thinking behind last year and then this year in changing those department objectives, some
slightly changed, some significantly changed, and
then a new one, the last one, “Enhanced government
safety management systems.” And as he read through his brief, it was clear the sum of why he was saying that, with cybersecurity, PIPA [Personal Information
Protection Act] and the likes.
So it will be nice to hear a little more of the
overall goal in changing the department objectives,
why that was, and give an overview to Bermuda of where he plans on taking Cabinet with some of these
objectives which have been changed. And, in partic ular, the ones that mention . . . now, I am not sure if he
mentioned them all. The second to the last bullet point
talks about government reform priorities , and I am not
sure if . . . in his briefing I know he gave some reform.
I am not sure whether or not the Premier did give all of the reforms that he actually is looking at, that the team
is looking at. It would be nice to hear a list of some of
those reforms in and of themselves, or a list just by
[itself], of these reforms that we are looking to see.
As we know, as we look over on page B -43
under the General Summary, it is very evident. We can see the differences in the amounts there. And of
course, the Premier did mention the first line, General
Administration, as to why it is $1.6 million over . . . not
over, but increased from the r evised and the original
amount from 2019/20. And I am going to basically just go through the numbers first and then ask some questions as we go through. And then you can see quite
clearly that . . . I will skip down to the Business Development Unit, how it has been removed and taken out,
so we understand that.
The Commission of Inquiry, of course there is
a $325,000 increase from the revised amount of the


Bermuda House of Assembly $9,000. I am not sure what that $9,000 represents at
all. But I am sure that he can help us out there.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: From the revised amount
in 2019/20 the revised amount, there is a $9,000. I am not sure what that was for. And it is a revised amount.
It is a bit odd, but I am not sure. Yes, I am not sure
exactly what that is for.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes. Okay. So they are
starting now. All right. Good. Thank you very much.
So I think I am going to skip on down now to
. . . I did not hear under the London Office, I was cur ious there, I did not hear an explanation as to, and for
the $162,000 increase. We know that it is an i mportant office. We know that the employee staffing
basically has not changed. So the $162,000, there was no explanation, unless I missed it, as to exactly
what that is going towards. And maybe some other
programmes that they are putting on [to consider]
Brexit. I do not know exactly what that constitutes or
how many other different things it may have to do
with. But it would be interesting to hear from the Premier exactly what that has to do with.
Now, what I did find interesting is the next
line, the Washington, DC, Office, 19045. So it is ev ident that we are not looking to keep the office. It is
interesting. I know when we [the OBA] cut back on the
office, we were k ind of beat up over it. But I also n otice now that this Government has decided to do wit hout the office. Concerned in one aspect as to, I was
always for the Washington Office. We know that there
are issues in London so we need to beef up things
there. But with the way that things are going around
the world, I am curious as to how we are supplementing that relationship, what we established as a Was hington Office and what it was doing.
What have we now done to replace that?
Knowing that our relationship with the United States is
a very close one, what exactly are we doing now that
replaces that? Do we have someone locally here who
flies back and forth, you know, conference calls and the likes? What exactly are we now doing to replace
that relationship?
And I guess as far as details are concerned,
the $61,000, he did explain exactly what that was. We
are looking to sublet that. So I am curious as to
whether or not we have actually been able to sublet it as of yet. Do we already have a tenant or someone
who is taking over the empty space? And with the
equipment and the like that was within the office itself
that we actually purchased to help in running it, what are we doing with those? Whether it was photocop iers, I do not know, Internet, that kind of thing. Wha t
are we doing with the equipment that was there, furni-ture and the like? Does that stay there with the new
tenant potentially? So it would be interesting to hear
about that.
And when did we make that decision? When
did we make the decision that we were not going to have the Washington Office? And in making that dec ision, was it a recent decision? Was it a decision made
in the last year and you were just moving to this?
When did we actually make that decision?
I think I had another question. But I will move
forward with some of my questions. Under the Brus-sels office, obviously we recognise that this $51,000
increase there, we did not hear exactly what that has
to do with the $51,000, and also understanding now
that I believe we are going to be moving. The head of
the Brussels office is moving on. And it is most likely that the person who is going to take over that space, are we going to replace, however —

He made that clear, you know.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: But he did not make it
clear who was going to replace the person who is going to take over the position . . . the person who is already there most likely will take over the head. But
who is going to take over that position? Or are we not
going to fill that position? We are not going to f ill it? I
do not know. There will be a vacancy in a lower pos ition, per se. Are we going to fill that position? So it
would be interesting to hear about that.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: I do not know. You mentioned the lady. There are two people there. So yes, if
she moves up in Brussels, then who will replace her
as she moves up into that position? Or maybe you are
not going to replace her. I do not know. Okay. Okay.
So if we can get some details concerning that.
And understandin g, again, the importance of
the position right now I think Bermuda really needs to
amp up its international relationship, considering all
the variances and crazy things that are going on right
now. It would be very, very interesting to see how he
is going to fill the Washington office, replace that and
the likes.
I was also curious with the . . . he mentioned
. . . where is it now? Let me just make sure I get it
right.

[Pause]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: He also mentioned just up
a little further there, Mr. Chairman, 19085, PADI and
the PIPA Unit.

Right.

3234 2 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Obviously, that is . . . I was
not quite sure of . . . so this 689 . . . so they are falling
under the same budgetary restraint? So the whole
budget is for both of these units? Because I would
consider them to be two separate, two different units.

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: It is just one. Okay. And in
PIPA, that unit itself, how many people are in there? Is
it just one person? Four?
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Okay. All right. Thank you
very much.
If I continue on down to the Cabinet Ministry,
under Administration, I noticed under the revised
amount, it is $232,000, which for the estimate amount
it was about a $15,000 difference. I know that it says
$9,000, but that is comparing to the original. So I do know that under the revised, stuff has happened. So
what exactly took place that caused the $15,000 di fference betw een the two? It is certainly much less
than the original. Exactly what happened? I do not know. Maybe something broke down. On page B -43, if
you look under Economic Policy and Foreign . . . I am
sorry. Under Cabinet Ministry, you see Administr ation? You got it? Yes. Just read it.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: No, no, I am speaking to
you. She was looking. No, she was looking. I am just
trying to help her.
She did not know where it was. So I am just
giving her a helping hand there. That is all.

Perfect. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes.
So if we could find out there a little more
about what has happened there. Also, if I could go back to the Washington O ffice, I did ask the question already, Do we have
someone in mind to rent there? And the $61,000, the
Premier gave an answer, but it did not seem . . . it
seemed to be more. I s that just interest? I was not
quite sure exactly.