The Tribune

The Government’s Value-Added Tax (VAT) implementation team has selected Data Torque’s software to run the IT system for its new tax.

Data Torque, which was selected from a group of 10 companies that responded to the Ministry of Finance’s tender, will supply software for an Integrated Tax Administration Information System (ITAIS).

The Government said in a statement that Data Torque meets the criteria required by the Inter-American Developmental Bank (IDB) for technical competence and costs, and appears to be the best solution to record tax compliance information.

The Government received the tenders on June 11, and created a short list for potential vendor supply, installation, integration, training, technical support and implementation support of an Integrated Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Software Solution and Hardware Platform for an Integrated Tax Administration and Information System (ITAIS). This will be used by the Central Revenue Agency (CRA) for the administration of the various taxes under its purview.

Companies were evaluated on the basis of five requirements:

* Ownership of an ITAIS that meets the requirements of the contract

* Efficient experience in meeting Government deadlines and budget restraints

* Proven capacity to install, implement, operate, and support COTS software solutions

* Availability of qualified professionals to tailor and implement the context of COTS in the Bahamas.

* Experience in developing and delivering web-based solutions

The RFP evaluating team comprised members of the Ministry of Finance, the Central Revenue Agency (CRA), the Value-Added Tax Implementation team, Department of Information Technology (DIT), and the Auditor-General’s Department.