The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Auditor General’s Office has hailed the Ministry of Tourism’s “vision and implementation” of the Health Travel Visa despite finding multiple concerns over how the scheme was administered.

The Government’s financial watchdog, in a report tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday, acknowledged that the programme had enabled The Bahamas to check whether visitors and residents were complying with COVID-19 testing protocols and other requirements at the pandemic’s height in a bid to facilitate the economy’s safe opening.

“During such extraordinary times government needs to be creative, flexible without jeopardising good governance (transparency and accountability),” the Auditor General’s Office concluded in a report that appears to fall short of providing the Davis administration, which frequently attacked the Health Travel Visa when in Opposition, with further ammunition for a new offensive.

However, the report did raise concerns over the lack of competitive tendering for Health Travel Visa contracts; the fact vendors were not being paid directly by the Government; the use of verbal as opposed to written contracts; and delays in transferring fee income to the Public Treasury.

“COVID necessitated some realities that are not reflected in the financial regulations,” the Auditor General’s Office said in its report. “The Ministry of Tourism failed to comply with the regulatory requirements for the procurement of goods and services. Seeking competitive bids is a mechanism intended to provide some assurance as to the reasonableness of costs of goods and services.

“Considering the cost of the travel insurance to CG Atlantic of $16.783m (net of VAT), representing 48.7 percent of total revenue, it would have been prudent to test the marketplace by seeking at least one other quote despite the pressing time limitations.”

The Government’s Financial Regulations 1975 require that all contracts for goods and services worth $250,000 and above be approved by Cabinet, but the Ministry of Tourism in its response to the Auditor General’s findings argued that the imperative of re-opening tourism and the wider Bahamian economy meant some corners had to be cut.

“The Ministry acknowledged the lack of competitive bidding, and the failure to execute contracts prior to the launch of the current version of the Bahamas Health Travel Visa,” it replied. “However, management strongly believed that there was simply insufficient time to develop a Request for Proposal, receive bids and negotiate contracts in the designated timeframe.

“In addition, given the newness of the health visa product and the lack of any examples of how much time would be necessary to launch and manage it, management felt it was more prudent to allow the contractors at the outset to develop the Bahamas Health Travel Visa on a ‘time spent’ basis and negotiate contracts three to four months after launch, once the scope of their work was better understood.”

The Auditor General’s Office noted the Ministry of Tourism’s description of the Health Travel Visa as “a ‘game changer’ for The Bahamas” in terms of the data it produced on travellers, both Bahamian and foreign. “We were informed that five days before the country was scheduled to re-open in November 2020, the program lacked a payment gateway,” the report added.

Kanoo, the digital payments provider, was brought in to provide this service, and the Auditor General’s Office said the compensation provided to it and other private sector contractors “appear to be within industry norms”.

However, the report said the Ministry of Tourism’s instruction for Kanoo to pay other private sector vendors via monthly payments from the former’s account was “inconsistent” or contrary to established practice. It said such payments should be made by the Public Treasury.

“The current revenue management administration of the Bahamas Health Travel Visa with the Government having limited control over its own revenue collection and related revenue expenditures is deemed critical and requires redress,” the Auditor General’s Office argued.

“This concern warrants the resolution at the Ministry of Finance, the Public Treasury, Ministry of Tourism and the Office of the Prime Minister in which the Department of Digitisation and Transformation is under.”

The Ministry of Tourism responded that the Promotion of Tourism Act’s section 3 (e) gave the minister the ability to enter into any contact he/she deems necessary, while it has always operated accounts that have received and paid out money.

The Auditor General’s Office, meanwhile, noted that there was a $30,000 difference between Health Travel Visa spending recorded by the Ministry of Tourism in July 2021 and that noted by the Public Treasury’s systems. And the latter recorded some $23,955 less than the $10.784m that the Ministry of Tourism said had been sent to the Public Treasury in Health Travel Visa fees.

An overpayment to Ports International of $43,948 for rapid antigen test kits was also noted, although the Ministry of Tourism said this would be “netted out” by the contracts end. Concerns were also raised that the source code listings for the Health Travel Visa website were the property of the developer, Think Simple, and not the Government.