The Tribune

In a site inspection that was anything but routine, a Bahamian real estate company’s staff toured the Bahamas.gov.bs website through a presentation by the Department of Information Technology.

Carol Roach, the department’s deputy director (left of projector screen), shows the Bahamas’ site ranking to Mario Carey, founder of Mario Carey Realty (MCR).

“It’s amazing. I had no idea all this stuff was on here,” said Mr Carey, immediately calling for additional information about the disabled and how to contact nonp-governmental organisations and other charitable organisations. Mr Carey is president of R.E.A.C.H., the autism support organisation.

The Government’s website is gaining popularity daily, with just over half the viewers searching for information doing so from outside the Bahamas.

As part of a campaign to boost usage and registration for online tax, fee and fine payments, plus access to services, the minister of state for finance, Michael Halkitis, will address Sunrise Rotary on Thursday, March 14, at the British Colonial Hilton.

The Department of Information Technology is hosting a half-day forum at the Nassau Sheraton Resort on Monday, March 21, from 9 am to noon.

The edu-forum is free and open to anyone in industry, government, professional firms and financial institutions wanting to improve productivity in their company or association through online, instead of in-line, services and transactions.

Ms Roach said the forum will be especially useful for information technology professionals. Students and other individuals who do a lot of research will also benefit, she said.

The website is a one-stop online portal for the Government, with links to every government office, agency and department, and access to all legislation, online bill payments and more.

Visitors to the portal can access 365 government forms, along with current news, health information, news from the Family Islands and information from various government departments. Bahamas Information Services (BIS) posts news daily.