The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE OPPOSITION’S leader says the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) plans to start investigating before month’s end several matters “of great concern” involving the Ministry of Transport and Housing.

Michael Pintard, who chairs parliament’s spending watchdog, told Tribune Business that the controversial contracts awarded for the online boating/ yachting fees portal and harbour navigation aids will be just two of the issues that the committee intends to probe.

Voicing hope that the Government will not seek to block attendance by permanent secretaries, senior civil servants and other key officials, as it has before, the Opposition leader said: “We do intend to look at the Ministry of Transport and Housing through the Public Accounts Committee. There are a number of matters that have caused grave concern.

“We have already begun the process. We expect by the end of July we are hopeful of talking to some of the persons associated with the Ministry of Transport and Housing because they have multiple matters of concern to us.” The Public Accounts Committee is the only House committee that the Opposition controls, and where it has a majority.

Mr Pintard listed the issues that he and the Opposition wish to examine as the $20m loan to finance the Renaissance at Carmichael housing development, which came from Jamaican finance house, Proven, and was arranged by Bahamian firm Simplified Lending, whose principal is Robert Pantry.

Other matters in the Committee’s sights are the controversy surrounding the issuance and granting of taxi licence plates, which previously aroused the ire of Wesley Ferguson, the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union’s president, plus the two contracts that Mr Pintard singled out in his 2023-2024 Budget presentation.

The Opposition leader’s queries prompted both Prime Minister Philip Davis KC and Jobeth Coleby- Davis to assert that the Government’s procurement processes were complied with at every stage of the $3.355m award to DigieSoft Technologies, which has been hired to develop an online payment portal that will capture the 4 percent charter fee due to the Port Department from visiting boat/yacht charters.

But, while the Government’s own Bonfire procurement portal lists Infrasoft Technologies as the bid winner, 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.” The discrepancy has yet to be explained.

Meanwhile, Kwasi Thompson, the Opposition’s finance spokesman, picking up on a Tribune Business article, challenged why the Government was committing $3.5m of taxpayer monies to the DigieSoft contract when the private sector - via the Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) - had provided exactly the same online fee collection solution via SeaZ Pass at no cost to the Public Treasury.

“The Opposition finds it astounding that the Government would seek to spend $3.35m to provide a solution that principally will be used to collect the same funds that the Government was already using a Bahamian entity to collect with no cost to the Government,” Mr Thompson, the former minister of state for finance said in a statement.

“The Tribune reported in its July 3, 2023, edition the fact that the Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) had already been providing this same service for several years in a way that minimised the Government’s investment and passed on the costs to the boaters themselves. The Davis administration cancelled this contract. If there was a contractual arrangement in place that had no ongoing costs, why would the Government decide to spend $3m to replace what was there?”

The Government and Ministry of Finance ordered that the SeaZ Pass portal close in October 2022 amid a dispute over whether its digital payments provider, Omni Financial Services, had not passed on all funds due to the Public Treasury. This was vehemently denied by Omni, and there are now competing positions as to whether the dispute has been fully resolved.

However, Mr Thompson yesterday argued that if the Government had concerns over whether it was receiving the fees due, it could simply have ordered the ABM to drop Omni and switch to another digital payments provider to perform the same function.

“If the Government claims that they were not collecting the funds, the contract with the Association of Bahamas Marinas could have used any financial service provider. We must ask the question: If the ABM set up the system for little to no cost to the Government and all the fees were being paid by those paying the bill, why did the Government cancel this contract to now pay over $3m,” the east Grand Bahama MP asked.

“The Opposition has already pointed out the total contempt for the procurement process evident in this award of a contract to DigieSoft, a seemingly brand-new company with no demonstrable track record, no website and no LinkedIn presence.

“If the Government’s policy intent was to ensure that Bahamians get the opportunity, how many capable Bahamian firms were provided the chance? Was the ABM - as a Bahamian entity - given the chance to make a submission to continue to provide the service?”

Mr Pintard, who also voiced concern over the $3.57m harbour navigational aids contract awarded to Adolpha Maritime Group on the basis that no competitive bidding process could be found on the Government’s procurement portal, said there were multiple “live issues” that the Committee wishes to address with respect to the Ministry of Transport and Housing.

Ryan Pinder KC, the attorney general, previously instructed Luther Smith, Ministry of Works and Utilities permanent secretary, not to appear before the Public Accounts Committee on the basis that its request was not compliant with parliamentary rules that set out its powers and how it should operate.

However, Mr Pintard expressed optimism that this will not occur again. “There should be no impediment going forward,” he argued. “We’ve had the opportunity to begin discussions with public servants. We’ve met with one permanent secretary on the record, so our hope is that the Government will not hinder us from further speaking to public officials. We have met with the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Service, who was very co-operative and helpful.”