• Minister blasts opposition claims as ‘pretty pitiful’

• Hails health travel visa as ‘tremendous success’

• Will likely remain until COVID-19 ‘settles down’

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister says he would “take a cut hip any day” for selecting Kanoo as the Bahamas health travel visa’s payment processor as opposed to delaying tourism’s late 2020 restart.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that the political opposition’s complaints were “pretty pitiful” as its members refused to let the issue drop amid more finger-pointing and assertions yesterday.

While the minister declined to respond directly to the pledge by Philip Davis, the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) leader, to scrap the health travel visa if the party wins the upcoming general election, he reiterated just prior to that announcement his belief that the initiative has been “a tremendous success” and helped to keep COVID-19 infection rates relatively low.

And Mr D’Aguilar also questioned how The Bahamas could continue permitting non-vaccinated tourists to enter, and verify that they had complied with this nation’s testing requirements, without having the health visa vetted to validate all this.

Responding to the opposition’s outcry that the health travel visa will stay in place until the 2022-2023 fiscal year, as per the budget estimates, Mr D’Aguilar said it was likely “to stay in place until things settle down” and more persons worldwide - especially in The Bahamas’ key source market - become inoculated against COVID-19.

While the opposition has become obsessed with the absence of any health tourism visa revenue from the 2020-2021 budget’s approved forecasts, those estimates were put together pre-May 2020 - well before the need for the visa was realised in the year’s second half.

Of more significance, though, is the absence of any health travel visa revenue being shown for the July 2020-March 2021 period despite the Ministry of Tourism last week revealing that some $9.8m in health travel visa revenue had been collected and $7.4m in related expenses paid, leaving a $2.4m surplus.

Mr D’Aguilar, though, said that $9.8m in revenue had been included in “other income” collected by the Treasury Department. That line item showed the latter collecting $18.561m in “other income” for the nine months to end-March 2021, compared to forecast income of $1.606m.

Again accusing the Government’s political opponents of “trying to create hay where there is no hay”, Mr D’Aguilar reiterated that it was the Ministry of Tourism’s software developer, Think Simple, that recommended hiring Kanoo “at the last minute” to act as the payment bridge between the health travel visa website and the Ministry of Tourism.

“We had to factor what it was going to cost and build-in the fee. It happened at the very end,” he added, explaining that the health travel visa concept and website were created in a rush given the pressures to re-open Bahamian tourism last November and the airlines’ refusal to vet COVID-19 test results from passengers.

Mr D’Aguilar said Think Simple had recommended Kanoo because the two had worked together on the feeding network initiative, and knew it could provide the solution within the required timeframe. “I’ll take a cut hip for that any day than delay the opening of tourism,” the minister told Tribune Business.

Kanoo’s principals include Keith Davies, the Bahamas International Securities Exchange’s (BISX) chief executive; Nicholas Rees as chairman; and its chief financial officer, Herbert Cash. Their identities have been in the public domain for some time, but also among the company’s directors is Dr Nigel Lewis, the Free National Movement’s (FNM) national campaign co-ordinator for the upcoming general election.

Tribune Business also last December disclosed that Dr Lewis is chairman of Public-Private Investments (PPIL) group, the entity that has received the Cabinet’s go-ahead to generate $1.5bn in revenues via a multi-million dollar proposal to revive and restore Nassau’s key heritage sites including three forts, the Queen’s Staircase (66 Steps) and Water Tower, and the Pompey Museum.

Mr D’Aguilar, though, again dismissed Opposition claims of cronyism and favouritism involving Kanoo’s selection. “When Kanoo was selected, it was not who are the shareholders? Are they FNMs or PLPs. That just did not happen, not that they will ever believe me. It just did not happen,” he said.

The minister also suggested that the grievances were coming from rival digital payments providers whose shareholders have PLP links, although he did not name them. Chester Cooper, the PLP’s deputy leader, is a principal investor in Cash n’ Go.

With the Opposition arguing that the health travel visa acts as a tax on both Bahamians and visitors, is a deterrent to travel and no other Caribbean nation has it, while also complaining that the money is not directly going to the Government’s Consolidated Fund, Mr D’Aguilar sought to focus on the positives.

“It’s been seamless, worked very well, and given people the impression it’s safe to come to The Bahamas,” Mr D’Aguilar said. “There are four things we look for on the test: It’s the right test, in the right time period, with the right result from an accredited laboratory.

“It’s kept COVID-19 down to a reasonable level and worked for us. Focus on the success. We were able to re-open tourism, and kept COVID-19 to a reasonable minimum. It’s been a tremendous success.”

As for how long the health travel visa remains in place, Mr D’Aguilar said of the Budget forecasts, which show $40m in revenues for the upcoming fiscal year and $22.32m in 2021-2022: “It’s a Budget. It’s a forecast. Estimates change. I see it staying in place until things settle down. We don’t know how long this will last.”