The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s investments chief yesterday revealed that mandating all foreign real estate purchase applications be submitted online is just the “first phase” paving the way for wider digital-based reforms.

Phylicia Woods-Hanna, director of investments at the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA), urged attorneys and others who represent foreign buyers to comply with the mandate that all applications for International Persons Landholding certificates and permits be submitted electronically on the SharePoint system with effect from December 1, 2024. As of Sunday, paper applications will no longer be accepted.

“This is only first phase, and I need to get through this first phase in order to provide better, efficient services in other areas of BIA, which include the Hotels Encouragement Act, the ‘no objection’ letters and the bigger piece of the puzzle is, of course, the projects that you see; the investment projects that we produce. We need to integrate that into an automated system,” Mrs Woods-Hanna said.

Confirming this is only the first step in a much bigger initiative to digitise all the BIA’s processes, and thus improve efficiency, turnaround time and give applicants greater certainty on when - and whether - they will receive approval, she urged law firms, mortgage service providers and all users who handle the processing of applications to reach out to the BIA and register before the deadline.

Mrs Woods-Hanna said: “We’ve heard the public’s cry about inefficiencies in the public sector, and this is a step towards making it more efficient and making it less frustrating for the users.” She said this new system will improve the ease of doing business, with feedback on the SharePoint system so far largely positive.

“There’s been a number of consultations,” Mrs Woods-Hanna said. “We have gotten a list based on the persons that would submit, the parties that would submit. Most of the persons that are our clients would be law firms.

“So what we’ve done has been over a period of maybe two-and-a-half years. We have been hearing all of the frustrations from the law firms. We’ve been doing a number of consultations with a number of professional service bodies. We’ve heard the real estate agents’ complaints about how it impacts their industry. And so it’s been a lot of industry consultation.

“Then, of course, when we started the system, there were certain law firms that are super users, in our view, that do a lot of bulk applications. So we would have reached out to them first and introduced the system to them. Even with the transition, there are manuals online that we have for all of our users to understand the process,” the BIA head added.

“You only have to register once. So if you’re registered with the Department of Inland Revenue, you don’t have to register again. You are the same user. It just allows us for better tracing. It just allows for better statistical data of how much revenue we’re collecting. It’s just more efficient on all fronts.

“So it’s been a process, I would say, over the last year, year-and-a-half, of just consultations using the system. There’s some law firms that have just completely started to use the system for about maybe eight to nine months now, and they’ve discontinued hard copies of the applications.”

Referring to the old system as “archaic”, Mrs Woods-Hanna added that the SharePoint system is quicker, easier and smoother. “The existing system that we currently use is very archaic,” she added. “In order to process our applications much quicker, we transitioned into the SharePoint system.

“So what would take an investment officer about 45 minutes to do in the old system would now take about less than 10 minutes to process in the system. It just allows us also to marry the process for smoother transition.

So the original programme you submitted to BIA, an application for a certificate of registration or a permit, that is for foreign persons who are holding land in our country, they have to come to the authority to get approval before they can purchase. When you submit it was processed in a system that took 45 minutes for the investment officer to process. Thereafter it was placed on an Investment Board agenda.”

Mrs Woods-Hanna continued: “We’ve digitised that process with a new up-to-date program to make it smoother so that everything is processed digitally. So like you would be e-mailed your Business Licence, you would also be e-mailed your Investment Board permit.

With that process as well, when you got your Investment Board approval, you actually had to physically take a letter down to the Department of Inland Revenue and pay the fees and then bring it back to us to generate the final document. So now you just get a link with an invoice when you get your approval, and you click on that link and you’re able to pay in both US dollars and Bahamian dollars.

“And our system is integrated with the Department of Inland Revenue. So it just allows us to more efficiently collect revenue for the Government as well as you don’t have to go physically to two departments. It’s completely digitised for you now.

“And it also allows for greater transparency because instead of you having to pick up the phone and call the director to find out what’s the status of the application because it’s significantly delayed, first of all, you don’t have the delays any more, and second of all, you’re able to look on your application and track it in real time and see exactly where it is. And follow up more meaningfully.”