The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Ministry of Tourism under the Davis administration gave a no-bid contract to Colina Insurance Limited to provide insurance services under the Bahamas Travel Health Visa programme.

That ministry’s decision, which was made last Fall after the Davis administration came into office and flies in the face of its position when the PLP was in opposition came when it criticised the Minnis administration for similarly giving a no-bid contract to Kanoo Pays for payment processing services for the health visa.

Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper confirmed yesterday there was no tendering process for the insurance contract because of time constraints.

He said the previous provider, CG Atlantic, was not forthcoming with details about the performance of the programme and was not willing to extend its services until ministry officials could analyse the scheme.

Just last week, however, Auditor General Terrance Bastian’s report into the visa programme was released and it criticised the lack of competitive bidding associated with the programme since its inception. Mr Bastian’s report covered November 2020 to August 2021, before Colina was given the insurance contract.

 Mr Cooper, the Minister of Tourism, Aviation and Investments, told reporters before a Cabinet meeting yesterday: “The health insurance was granted to CG Atlantic originally. That did not go through a formal tendering process and there is a view that the Ministry of Tourism is a corporate sole and in effect because we negotiate large scale contracts abroad that has to be done swiftly and expeditiously, the Tourism Act, which many persons should familiarise themselves with, authorises the Ministry of Tourism to enter contacts outside of the normal frame of what you would find in the public service. So, let me be clear about that in the first instance.”

 He added: “There were inquiries in relation to the performance of the health insurance with CG Atlantic. The information was not forthcoming. We were approaching a deadline by which we needed to enter a new contract otherwise the contract would have expired with there being no insurance in place. Because we did not receive the information and the claims experienced and the utilisation of the plan in a timely manner, we were unable to determine whether the pricing was appropriate.

 “Subsequent to that we made inquiries of other insurance companies. Colina responded in a timely manner with a rate that was better than what we had with CG Atlantic and with a profit-sharing component. In other words, if the plan makes excessive amounts of money for the insurer, they will pay some back to the government so we thought it was a much better deal than the one we had. CG Atlantic refused to extend the policy to allow us to do the appropriate analysis and we took the decision to move to another carrier.”

 Asked what was different about the no-bid contract to Colina and the no-bid contract to Kanoo, Mr Cooper declined to compare the two.

 “I will speak to the decision making of my administration and me as a minister and defend my stewardship,” he said. “I am not going to get into the politics of Kanoo and the Bahamas Travel Health Visa.”

 In his audit report, Mr Bastian acknowledged the time pressures officials faced in originally executing the visa programme, but said the Ministry of Tourism should still have gone out to tender, particularly for the insurance contract because of the significant costs associated with that service.

 “The Ministry of Tourism failed to comply with the regulatory requirements for the procurement of goods and services,” Mr Bastian wrote. “Seeking competitive bids is a mechanism intended to provide some assurance to the reasonableness of costs of goods and services. Considering the cost of the travel insurance to CG Atlantic of $16,782,895, 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.”