By DENISE MAYCOCK
Tribune Freeport Reporter
dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
AFTER going cashless in New Providence, the Royal Bahamas Police Force has extended the initiative to Grand Bahama and will no longer accept cash from citizens.
Assistant Superintendent Stephen Rolle said people applying for various records from the RBPF will now have to pay through either third-party vendors, with a debit or credit card in office, or pay online through MyGateway.gov.bs.
He said this will make the process easier and more efficient.
“The government saw fit to do business more efficiently with the citizens of the Bahamas. And it helps to alleviate the loss of revenue for the government,” ASP Rolle said.
The RBPF, in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, launched the cashless system on July 1.
This means that clients who want to apply for a character reference, traffic record and reports, firearm license and renewals, and a fingerprint card, can no longer use cash to pay for these records.
Once paid online, he said the agency would receive a notification and the record would be processed.
Clients will then get an invoice, SMM, or email informing them that the record is ready for collection.
ASP Rolle said persons may proceed to the agency to collect their record and must take the documentation they supplied, along with their invoice.
Persons who do not have access to the internet may use third-party vendors, he said.
“You can enter an agency with your documents and apply. You will be given an invoice to take a third-party vendor of your choosing, such as Omni, Sun Cash, or Cash and Go. “Produce the invoice and pay cash to that vendor. Once you pay cash at the vendor, you will receive a message via SMM or email informing you that the record is ready for collection,” he explained.
“No record will be processed unless it is paid for in advance. We are urging members of the public to please take advantage of the app. It is very user-friendly and helps speed the process when applying for records,” he said.
ASP Rolle said all foreigners must apply in person at the agency for all records.
He noted that in person payments must be made by credit and debit card only.
“When applying in person, there will be absolutely no cash exchanged at any of the agencies… when applying for the various records, including re-applying for character reference or fingerprint card, as well as traffic record and reports, and also for firearm license or renewals,” he said.
Comments
TalRussell 3 years, 4 months ago
New form discrimination by removing cash outreach Thirty+percent of the PopoulacesGenerals, yes?
bahamianson 3 years, 4 months ago
Need to go corruptionless first, gain the respect of the populace, teach officers professionalism, make it mandatory for them to exercise. Half of them are overweight and cannot run down a suspect ect.....
C2B 3 years, 4 months ago
LOL. They can only catch the plump tourists.
carltonr61 3 years, 4 months ago
Digital payment was placed on The Bahamas by G7wht slavery nations upon economic slave nations. The initiative is not that of The Bahamas gov as we the people were never consulted. We are still taking whips on our backs to bend or break. We are not independent nor possess sovereignty. Our food self sufficiency stands at zero. We are on our bended knees owing 10billion dollers except for our blk king crabs digital slave drivers as we now work for them to rich from our labor. We must pay digital companies for us to pay our gov bills. Blk on blk slavery. We are not free to our gov what we owe. King blk Crabs have devoured us money, body mind and soul. That service is at a price on the poor people pockets. Criminal to have the Police assist in further robbery of the devastated poor. God don't like that. Blk elite ruling class slave master gov far worst and cruel than the wht UBP. Blk on blk slavery is absolutely a product from hell and mercy less getting rich of the backs of blk Bahamians.
C2B 3 years, 4 months ago
Read the book "Animal Farm", it's instructive.
carltonr61 3 years, 4 months ago
These blk on blk Ministers of gov are akin to our African Slavery where blks sold blks to slavers for personal profits. Again, history repeats itself we the weak underling voters are whipped into making lks richer at our sacrifice. We are dumb donkeya$$s being beaten by a whip that causes financial bleeding, and we smile with our killers who are also our blk masters. Minnister dem blk slavers gat horses in the gate that they could heatlessly bleed each Bahamian that blk Crabs elite gave entitlement to become rich from our labor as if we are their slaves and they our plantation slave masters. Not even the wht UBP man did us this slavery. DNA please offer us hope from our grotesque blk leaders.
carltonr61 3 years, 4 months ago
Et tu Brute. Caesar, The Bahamian people have been betrayed by Brutus the Competant. To pay our legitimate government taxes we must make sweethearts, honeysuckers, lovers, registered stock industry, friends and high placed hush mouths rich. While the slave middle class and working poor pay off 10billion Bahamian loans and get poorer. They evangelize the elite naming buildings after persons who despise the poor and never mux with them. CA Smith while ad minister of education encouraged and inspired Bahamian writers to become a part of nation building. We got internationally certified, then she the incoming min of education low broused Bahamian writers in her only meeting with us as though we were cockroaches carrying fleas. A dispickable elite if politics.
carltonr61 3 years, 4 months ago
Just as Sir Etienne Dupuch pushed as the leading Vanguard against wht supremacy in the Bahamas toward blk entitlement to power it must push against this blk elite class of plantation slave ownership of Bahamian money through digital hijacked of our finances to neoblk elitist Bahamas political slave owners with harsher whips than the wht man.
C2B 3 years, 4 months ago
Bahamians can't trust the Royal Bahamas Police Force with small amounts of cash. Think about that for a minute.
carltonr61 3 years, 4 months ago
Trust me. The Police Force are insulted by the move that it implied that they are thieves. I am sur no one has heard of an investigation. This cashless system is 100% in parts of Denmark, so too beastiality and all forms freedoms. I guess that European values are being imposed on us by our political leaders who bend to every EU rule. Most of EU are against these rules and the Union may break up as the Czechs refused to bow or bend to their wish of promoting transsexuals. Digital payments are being ransomeware locked daily. Will the gov pay 100million dollars to have some private firm unli k gov money. It is a known stupid trap.
carltonr61 3 years, 4 months ago
Correction. Not Czech but Hungary.
Proguing 3 years, 4 months ago
Someone needs to take them to court, cash is the only legal tender. Government cannot refuse payment of the very same currency it prints. This is idiotic beyond comprehension.
WETHEPEOPLE 3 years, 4 months ago
How about we just stop accepting cash everywhere.
DDK 3 years, 4 months ago
Stupid, stupider and stupidest. This government is as sick as they get, and they have been very sick.
carltonr61 3 years, 4 months ago
Not accepting cash is the G7 plan. The USA is not all the way in with this farce. Gov not accepting its own Queens legal tender at aIl makes our currency a criminal fiasco. In Germany this was challenged in High Court already and the government lost. It would take a Constitutional amendment for the gov to refuse its own legal tender. This is really treason.
birdiestrachan 3 years, 4 months ago
Is the cost less than $10.00 why do they need a go-between to pay this fee? Who are these people to whom the money is paid and how much is given to the Bahamas Government. There should be a choice.
Proguing 3 years, 4 months ago
We live in a country with unreliable internet and power supply, so whenever any of the two are down, no electronic payment can be processed. Has anyone thought about this?
rodentos 3 years, 4 months ago
is cash also not accepted at these random police stops?
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