The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Prime Minister yesterday defended the award of two multi-million dollar contracts amid charges by the Opposition’s leader that handling of the bid process “opens up every company to suspicion”.

Philip Davis KC, in concluding the 2023-2024 Budget debate, asserted that proper processes were followed in the awarding of a $3.355m contract to DigieSoft Technologies for the development of an online portal to capture private boat and yacht charter fees even though the Government’s own procurement site lists another company as the winner.

The Government’s procurement portal lists Infrasoft Technologies as the bid winner but, when the ‘view award’ link is clicked, the pop-up states: “The Ministry of Transport and Housing has awarded the contract for the creation of the online portal for the Port Department to DigieSoft Technologies.”

Michael Pintard, the Opposition’s leader, raised concerns about this and one other contract award during his own Budget debate contribution last week. “Madame Speaker, there have been reports in the public domain regarding two significant contracts awarded by the Ministry of Transport earlier this year,” he said then.

“One contract, worth $3.35m, was awarded to DigieSoft for software development in the Port Department. The other contract, amounting to $3.57m annually, was given to Adolpha Maritime Group for the maintenance and upkeep of navigational aids. Mobilisation fees exceeding $1m were sought for both contracts in early 2023.”

Referring to the former, Mr Pintard said: “What is peculiar, Madame Speaker is that the Government’s portal lists the winning bidder as Infrasoft Technologies, an Indian company now known as Kiya.ai. However, when one clicks on the related tab for the contract winner’s details, it states that the contract was not awarded to Infrasoft Technologies but to a company called DigieSoft Technologies.

“Therefore, according to the Government’s published information, the Indian company that won the bid did not receive the contract. We attempted to research DigieSoft Technologies, the company that supposedly won the bid, but we found no company website, LinkedIn page or any information whatsoever about its track record in technology projects.

“These circumstances raise numerous questions that the Government must address. Why was the contract not awarded to the winning bidder? A project of this magnitude would have required scrutiny by the Tenders Board. What decision did the Tenders Board reach? Did DigieSoft submit a bid during the formal bidding process? Why did the Government award a substantial $3m contract to a company with no apparent track record in delivering such a solution?” he added.

“How did the Government determine the capabilities of this seemingly new company to handle a project of this size and scope? How many technical staff does DigieSoft have? How many similar projects have the company undertaken? Is DigieSoft merely outsourcing the work to another firm, thus providing no real value to the initiative?”

Mr Davis, defending the Government’s work and actions, described Mr Pintard’s assertions as “incorrect”. He added that the Infrasoft bid was never approved by Cabinet and, instead, DigieSoft went through the necessary vetting and approval by his Cabinet.

“We are happy and proud of the young Bahamian men behind DigieSoft who are creative, talented and extremely bright. It is high time young Bahamians were given equal opportunity to compete for Government contracts. These young men have educated themselves, returned home and are making a positive contribution to the Bahamas. They have earned whatever reward they receive, and deserve our support and respect,” the Prime Minister added.

He did not, though, name DigieSoft’s principals, and instead sought to portray the Opposition Free National Movement (FNM) as being against progress and opportunity for Bahamians.

“Digiesoft has been awarded the contract to design a portal which will finally tap into revenue streams that have previously gone unnoticed, and that is millions of dollars in revenue in which the Government will be able to collect from private boat owners and charters who enter our country and move about from port to port,” Mr Davis said.

“This project will help The Bahamas to close this loophole and bring in much needed revenue, and ensure that we are inline with international port operating standards. To further strengthen our maritime sector we have also eliminated duty and VAT for yachts and pleasure crafts, but increased registration fees, in order to encourage domestic registration for these vessels.

“This is an important step forward to creating a yacht registry and improving the strength of our marine sector. There has been representation to us that we should consider providing the same incentives to the aircraft industry to encourage more aircraft to register in The Bahamas and grow our aircraft registry. We are actively exploring this opportunity.”

Mr Pintard accused the Prime Minister of “misrepresenting” his concerns, which related to the procurement portal discrepancies over who was the winner of the boating fees portal contract - DigieSoft or the Indian company. “It opens up every Bahamian company to suspicion,” he argued. “This is not an administration following the rules.”