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As quiet as it has been kept, developer Zane DeSilva, chosen by Premier Ewart Brown as Minister without portfolio, is now the acting Environment Minister.

This is not a good idea.

The Ministry of the Environment is our front line in the battle against overdevelopment.

Putting the head of a construction company at the helm of that department poses a serious conflict of interest akin to getting the proverbial fox to guard the henhouse.

This posting is doubly worrying as Dr. Brown has already shown his willingness to overshadow ministerial protocols when his pet projects are on the line, such as the cost over-runs in the Dockyard cruise ship pier project.

Two reasons this was over budget are:

* The management of the Dockyard piers project was taken out of the hands of the Works & Engineering Ministry and given over to Dr. Brown's Tourism Ministry. The civil servants in the Tourism Ministry have virtually no experience or expertise in managing capital projects.

In fact, our government ministries are structured to have all capital project expertise and experience reside in W&E, for efficiency's sake if nothing else.

So the passing of the management of the Dockyard piers from W&E to Tourism automatically removed the island's designated and most skilled managers off the project.

DISASTER

Consequently, all the changes to the plan, whether major or frivolous, and the conduct of the project did not have the oversight of the country's highly paid capital projects managers.

That was a recipe for management disaster, for which the results provide evidence.

* There was no Comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) done on the piers.

Government did hire a local outfit to do an EIA but the kindest thing that can be said about their product is it wasn't up to scratch.

When their first effort was shown to be less than adequate (again, putting it kindly), they were instructed to begin again.

Of course, the proper thing would have been to hire a reliable and experienced outfit with the capacity to perform an EIA for the entire scheme.

But by then, the project was so far behind schedule that even the substandard EIA was abandoned.

And in the same way the Works Ministry was cut out of managerial oversight, the Environment Ministry was prevented from doing its job.

Dr. Brown has handled his Cabinet by getting rid of just about anyone who will call him out or stand up to him and replacing them with sycophants and those with less-than-stiff spines. With ministries, he has kept Transport and Tourism directly under his thumb and made ruinous decisions for both portfolios.

Transport Ministry decisions have resulted in bigger, faster and heavier vehicles on our roads with disastrous results for traffic order (more speeding and traffic chaos), road structure (roadside walls knocked over and potholes and broken tarmac everywhere) and road safety (increases in accidents, injuries and deaths).

In Tourism, the firing of civil servants who stood up to him and the hiring of dubious public relations outfits that cost far more than they are worth has all but gutted tourism promotion. Having to give away tickets to get any reasonable attendance numbers at fancy events like PGA golf and glitzy music festivals suggests the cost far outweighed their benefit.

It's pretty clear that by turfing out W&E from its oversight duty and having the Dockyard project under his direct control, Dr. Brown was able to redesign, underplan and overspend to his heart's content.

BLAME

He was then able to use his spin merchants to claim it was properly handled by his ministry and put the blame for overruns elsewhere.

Having euchred the regulatory mechanism for three ministries, Dr. Brown may be setting the stage to overturn the environmentally protective aspects of the new Bermuda Development Plan.

The public should note Government is attempting to alter the plan to specifically permit "beach bars" to be built on parklands.

By appointing an active, major developer as Minister of the Environment, whether acting or permanent, Dr. Brown is thumbing his nose at the public.

It's time to push back.[[In-content Ad]]

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