New legislation aimed at making it easier to shift Government services to other providers in a bid to save cash is to be tabled in the coming parliamentary session, Finance Minister Bob Richard revealed today.

And he added that Government would be “more aggressive” than the SAGE Commission set up to look at cutting public service costs in the coming Budget.

Mr Richards said: “The glide path that we are intending to follow is actually more aggressive that SAGE’s. While SAGE was being more aggressive two or three years down the road, we are being more aggressive now.”

Mr Richards added that administrative departments. rather than areas which would require large investment, would be first to be targeted as spin-offs as Government tries to cut the cost of running Bermuda.

He said the legislation would allow an “eligible person” to take over former Government roles and that public service mutuals — where employees cease to be civil servants and take a share-owning stake in a new provider — private investors, trusts and charities would all be in the frame to take over some functions.

And he said a new authority aimed at “efficiency and reform” would “transform the delivery of services to the public in order to achieve financial savings and enhance the public’s use of these services”.

He added the new body would decide “which departments will be spun off and what form that spin off will take”.

Mr Richards was speaking at a breakfast meeting organised by the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce to discuss the SAGE report in the run-up to the Budget later this month.

And he said that the 60/40 rule — which guarantees majority Bermudian ownership of companies — would have to be further relaxed as the Island looks for outside investment to boost the struggling economy.

Mr Richards added: “The 60/40 rule has been relaxed in places...I think that the need for capital in Bermuda is going to drive the boundary of 60/40 further and further.

He said that the abolition of the 60/40 rule had not been discussed in Government.

Mr Richards added: “But it’s clear that the need for additional inward investment is so strong, the protectionist ideas and policies of the past no longer apply.”

Mr Richards said the rule, which has already been amended for financial institutions like banks, was introduced to protect Bermuda’s economy amid fears of a takeover by foreign interests.

He added: “We were afraid we were going to be overwhelmed by foreign capital — today we need that foreign capital. We will be looking at that going forward.”

And he warned: “You can’t increase the capital, can’t have those jobs, and not have foreigners own that capital. It can’t be done.”

Mr Richards said a major public project like the redevelopment of the airport was “something which is certainly a project which would fall into that category”.

He added: “Any outsourcing or utilisation of privatisation will done with the objective of lowering the cost of providing that service.

“If, after it’s looked at and analysed and the costs can’t be reduced that way, then it won’t be done.

“We are not going to do something that is going to increase the cost of providing that service.”

But he said: “There are many Bermudians who want things to improve but don’t want to change the set-up.

“You can’t have an improvement without change.”

And he added: “You can’t have that capital, you can’t have those jobs, that money, if we don’t change the way we’re set up now.”

The SAGE Commission was set up by Government to review how best to streamline government processes, improve delivery of services and make government more efficient, more cost-effective, more transparent and more user-friendly.