By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas is among the hemisphere’s best performers for the speed at which government services are delivered, even though “three visits” are required to complete one-third of such transactions.

These findings, contained in a newly-released Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report on the “red tape” encountered in accessing public services, is likely to raise eyebrows among many Bahamians and local businesses given the time spent standing in long lines to complete such transactions.

Still, drawing on Transparency International data, the report found that The Bahamas lagged only Chile when it came to the speed with which public services are accessed. The average 2.8 hours taken to complete such processes in this nation was said to be far superior to Caribbean rivals, such as Jamaica and Barbados, which were both above four hours, and the region’s 4.3 hour average.

“The Bahamas had the lowest average times of the Caribbean, and was the second best of all Latin American and Caribbean countries at 2.8 hours, just above Chile,” the IDB report said.

This nation also fared relatively well, at least in comparison to its Caribbean counterparts, on the number of visits that have to be made to government offices before a service can be accessed. While just 11 percent and 23 percent of such transactions in Jamaica and Barbados, respectively, were completed in one visit, for The Bahamas 51 percent - or one in two such dealings - were concluded in this manner.

“In Barbados, only 23 percent of the transactions were completed in one visit, and 43 percent required three visits or more,” the IDB report said. “In The Bahamas, on the other hand, 51 percent of the transactions were completed in one interaction, and 36 percent needed three or more visits to be finalised.

“Multiple interactions can happen for various reasons. They might be a reflection of problems with the clarity and relevance of the information provided by the Government: If people go to carry out a government transaction without having all the required documents, or they must visit different offices due to a lack of information, then finalising their transaction will require more interactions.

“Furthermore, they could be pointing to the existence of excessive requirements, which results in the need to carry out additional transactions, creating a ‘chain of transactions’. Multiple interactions generate transaction costs for citizens even if every individual visit is short, as citizens must spend time and resources commuting to public offices and ask multiple times for leave at work, among other costs.

“In addition to the difficulties for citizens, these multiple interactions also imply efficiency losses for the government, which is forced to earmark more resources for providing citizen services.”

The Government has just initiated a $30m IDB-funded initiative to digitise government services, the latest example of this exercise being the online passport renewal application, as it seeks to improve efficiency in public service delivery and economic competitiveness.

Just how far The Bahamas has to go was illustrated by the latest IDB report, which said: “A recent survey of nearly 350 businesses in The Bahamas showed that their experience conducting transactions with the Government is difficult and often costly.

“Thirty percent of all transactions required more than eight hours of active time to complete, 38 percent of all transactions required five documents or more, and 26 percent of businesses hired external help to conduct their last government transaction.”

And, referring to the Transparency International findings, the IDB document branded government transactions “a hotbed of corruption” with 20 percent of Bahamians surveyed reporting they had paid a bribe to access public services - a percentage only exceeded by Guyana.

The Bahamas also ranked among the hemisphere’s lowest with just 5 percent of government services accessible online, and no functional electronic platform that combines these services so that applicants do not have to resubmit the same information twice.

“One of the biggest problems of difficult government transactions is their regressive character: They affect the poor more,” the IDB report said. “People in this segment of the population generally enjoy less flexibility at work, which makes it difficult for them to ask for time off to carry out a government transaction.

“Likewise, they are less able to forego lost income and have fewer resources to cover the costs incurred in carrying out transactions. Complex, hard-to-access information on transaction requirements and forms that are difficult to fill out or hard to understand also affect, to a greater extent, people with lower educational attainment who lack the necessary tools to navigate the system.

“All of the above means that low income people complete fewer transactions, which implies that they benefit less from government services and programmes.....The fact that low income people carry out fewer government transactions, even to access services that in theory would benefit them, has negative implications: Government programmes are not reaching their target beneficiaries, which reduces policy effectiveness.”