The much anticipated SAGE Commission final report has been presented to Government.

Acting Minister of Finance, Michael Dunkley accepted the 150-page document yesterday marking the end of the six-month review. The full appendix runs to more than 10,000 pages.

Chairman Brian Duperreault said the report, carrying recommendations on how to create a more efficient and accountable Government, entailed a lot of hard work.

But he said: “It’s been a labour of love: we all want to help restore Bermuda’s financial health.

“This goal has been uppermost as the Commission grappled with how best to reduce Government’s enormous deficit.

“In fact, because we had such a high level of volunteer support, we will be able to return about 25 percent of the funds we raised at the start of our review.

“From the beginning, a broad, diverse cross-section of the community has been involved in this important initiative.”

The interim report was submitted on July 23. Mr Duperreault noted that both documents represent “thousands of hours of review, analysis and discussion”.

“They are a true reflection of what the public and private sectors feel should to be done to create a government that Bermuda needs and can afford.

“The recommendations in the report we are presenting today represent some difficult decisions. However, we believe they are fair and measured. We’ve taken care to consider economic as well as social issues,” he said.

“We also believe that if these recommendations are adopted, Bermuda has a fighting chance of reversing the downward economic spiral the country has been in for the last four years.”

Mr Duperreault added: “We have printed the report itself; the appendix is on a flash drive that accompanies the document.

“We promised from the outset that we would be transparent and inclusive so we have also created a web site that includes all the material in our final report as well as thousands of documents used as source material.

“We believe that posting our recommendations online affords the public the best opportunity to view this material in its entirety.

“We are providing the Bermuda Government with relevant details about this site with the request that when the SAGE Commission’s final report is tabled in the House of Assembly, the site will become live.”

Moving forward he said the team looks forward to the discussions of their report, both in Parliament and in the community.

He concluded the work put into this report was genuinely for “Bermuda’s future well-being, and the greater good”.

Accepting the report, Mr Dunkley assured the Chairman that he will hand over the report to the Minister of Finance Bob Richards on his return to Bermuda last night.

“It’s the Minister of Finance’s intention as soon as he returns to the island to read the report, to table it in front of Cabinet as soon as possible, then to have a press conference on a summary of what he believes we can move forward with and then to table it in the legislature to allow a full debate on this very important document as we go forward.

“I don’t think anybody envisioned the complexity of the problem that we face and the amount of work you had to do to get there,” said Mr Dunkley.

“The Government appreciates the sacrifice that everyone has put into bringing this document in such a short period of time.

“These type of examinations even in very difficult times for the people of Bermuda, are certainly very difficult for the people under the microscope.

“To all of those in the Civil Service on behalf of the Premier and the Minister of Finance, we appreciate you getting involved in the process, being open and honest about the challenges we face and you know that this Government will do its best to move forward in an appropriate manner with this report.”

Asked if he could say anything to alleviate the fears of civil servants of losing their jobs, Mr Dunkley replied: “I think we all should be concerned in Bermuda about the direction we’re going into.

“But I also think because of the Bermudian spirit when we have challenges, how we rise up to meet them in an appropriate fashion, I think the Civil Service should be comforted that this Government will do the right thing and in the right way.

“It’s too premature to comment on what could take place, that’s up to the Finance Minister to report to his Cabinet colleagues. But we’ve got a difficult road and we’ve got to make those tough choices.

“And I think we all have to get that resolved to do the right thing so we can have a sustainable and comfortable future and that’s the important part about it. Change is very uncomfortable but we have to move forward.”