Public Works Minister Colonel David Burch has set about the task of reversing the impact of what he believes was a Department of Parks “destined for privatisation by stealth”, by the former One Bermuda Alliance administration.
Speaking in his first exclusive joint interview with Bermuda Real and TNN on Wednesday, he said his first order of business as the new Minister, was to hold a town hall meeting with all 704 staff employed by this “huge” ministry.
He noted that staff morale with the Parks Department was at all-time low when he arrived to find equipment that had been allowed to break down and not replaced, in addition to staff who had left, who had not been replaced.
“We’ve had some significant challenges there,” said Col Burch.
“We are going to do things differently to change the trajectory of Parks which in my opinion was destined for privatisation by stealth.”
When asked for an update on the state of Bermuda’s roads, he conceded that generally, there are still “atrocious”.
And in a wide ranging interview, he also stated that there was $1.5 million in government revenue sitting in boxes of bills sent out by the Public Works Ministry stamped ‘return to sender’.
