The three independent experts commissioned to assess the Bermuda Government’s efforts to balance its budget have been on the Island this week conducting research.

The Fiscal Responsibility Panel (FRP) trio have had discussions with a number of people in the community to add some perspective to the numbers they have already studied.

The panel is due to submit its first annual report next month.

The FRP is chaired by David Peretz, an independent consultant on international financial issues who has worked in the UK Treasury and the World Bank.

The other panel members are Jonathan Portes, principal research fellow at the UK National Institute of Economic and Social Research and a former chief economist to the British Cabinet Office, and Peter Heller, who worked as a senior manager during a near 30-year career at the IMF and a visiting professor at a number of universities in the US and Europe.

The panellists declined to comment on their findings so far when The Royal Gazette caught up with them at the Ministry of Finance yesterday.

Mr Portes said the group had “done a lot of homework” in reviewing Government accounts and projections and that meetings with a range of people from inside and outside Government this week were proving “very useful”.

Their remit includes reviewing the progress of the Government’s effort to achieve a balanced budget by 2018/19, and goes as far as offering advice on tax and spending policies to achieve the goals.

The panel will also consider longer-term issues, reviewing “prospects for further progress towards meeting the aims of reducing debt and debt service to less than 80 per cent and 10 per cent of revenues, and for implementing the rule that net borrowing can only be considered to finance capital spending”.

During their work they will consider the impact of the most recent Budget, the credibility of the assumptions underlying Government projections, and the risks that could affect fiscal progress.

Bob Richards, the Finance Minister, announced plans to form the FSR in February’s 2015/16 Budget statement. He said at the time: “To increase transparency and international credibility, Government intends to establish an international, independent committee to review, monitor, assess and publicly report on the fiscal progress of the Government.

“Several other islands have also adopted similar outside assessors and it has helped bolster credibility and confidence. The report prepared by this panel will be an input into the overall work to create a framework for financial stability policy in Bermuda.”