By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A former Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) president yesterday queried why taxpayers are paying $3.355m for a solution to capture boat and yacht charter fees when the private sector previously provided the same at zero cost.

Peter Maury, who headed the Association at the time its SeaZ Pass portal went online, told Tribune Business it was "so confusing" as to why Bahamian taxpayers were now financing the same solution for the Port Department when the marina body and its partners had covered all such costs associated with their version.

He added that "great mystery" surrounds the new portal, as the marina industry has not been consulted - and has received no information - on how it function or when it will be launched so that it can fully brief its boating and yachting clients on what to expect.

The question of whether taxpayers are receiving value for money over the Port Department's online fee collection portal, given that a private sector-financed solution was already available, is the latest question to be raised over the contract's awarding to a previously unknown company, DigieSoft Technologies.

SeaZ Pass, which Mr Maury said collected around $4.3m in charter and other boating-related fees during the 16 months it was operational, was closed down by the Government and Ministry of Finance in October 2022 amid a dispute over whether the portal's payment provider, Omni Financial Services, had remitted the full sum to the Public Treasury.

Omni asserted that all sums due and owing had been paid in response to Ministry of Finance allegations that some $5m remained outstanding, and this newspaper was yesterday informed that progress has been made in resolving this dispute. However, several sources have questioned why, if the Government had concerns, it simply did not require that the digital payments provider be changed and allow SeaZ Pass to continue with a new provider.

Jobeth Coleby-Davis, minister of transport and housing, did not respond to several messaged Tribune Business questions on the issues raised before press time last night. However, the Government is effectively taking back in-house an initiative that may not just be collecting the 4 percent yacht charter fee but, also, the 10 percent VAT levy that was introduced on charters in July 2022.

"We were already doing this. This was being done by the Association of Bahamas Marinas," Mr Maury told Tribune Business of the fee collection. "They cancelled a contract that was paid for by the Association. They just took it down.

"The [boating] clients were already paying, and paying at a greater rate than the Government had ever collected in the history of charter fees. As soon as we opened it up, people started paying. It took a while to get that started and going, but people started paying as soon as they found out how easy and simple it was.

"If they had done what we suggested, to do a better job of policing it with additional privileges for the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Tourism to improve the way they can track it with additional costs to us.... I just don't understand it. We did it as a convenience to our guests to get them moving quickly, and they said take it down, we're going to do it ourselves."

When asked why Bahamian taxpayers are now paying $3.355m for a solution that was previously being provided, and paid for, by the private sector at zero cost to the Public Treasury, Mr Maury replied: "That's the part that's so confusing. If we were getting $9m from the Government to do this I could understand them wanting to take over the licence, but it didn't cost them anything.

"We used a Bahamian payment platform [Omni] to process the payments that went directly to the Public Treasury. There was never any money given to the ABM because of this. It was a convenient way for our clientele to pay money to the Government and keep moving."

Disclosing that the Association has yet to be briefed on the new portal and the Government's plans, Mr Maury added: "We don't even know who it is. All they said was there's a new company that's going to be doing this. That's the great mystery. Nobody knows anything about this.

"When they did Click2Clear, that was part of the licence - online clearing for Customs. Customs did not want us doing it and took it over. We were allowed to see their portal before it launched. We were able to say this was wrong and why, but we haven't seen this new portal. It's just no information. We don't know how it's going to work. We've been wondering why it's such a big secret."

Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance's financial secretary, yesterday said the payments dispute with Omni concerning the former SeaZ Pass portal had "not completely" been resolved but "some progress has been made". Based on his recollection, he said the sum in question had come down from around $5m to close to $1m, but he had not checked on the issue recently.

Another source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "There was very little money owed by Omni in the first place. Given the nature of those fee payments, money was flowing in and out all the time through the portal. It was all settled within a week of becoming public."

Michael Pintard, the Opposition's leader, first raised concerns about the online boating fees portal contract during the recent 2023-2024 Budget debate. This prompted Philip Davis KC to assert that proper processes were followed in the awarding of the $3.355m contract to DigieSoft Technologies even though the Government’s own procurement website lists another company as the winner.

The Government’s procurement portal lists Infrasoft Technologies as the bid winner but, 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.”

Mr Pintard said: “What is peculiar, Madame Speaker is that the Government’s portal lists the winning bidder as Infrasoft Technologies, an Indian company now known as Kiya.ai. However, when one clicks on the related tab for the contract winner’s details, it states that the contract was not awarded to Infrasoft Technologies but to a company called DigieSoft Technologies.

“Therefore, according to the Government’s published information, the Indian company that won the bid did not receive the contract. We attempted to research DigieSoft Technologies, the company that supposedly won the bid, but we found no company website, LinkedIn page or any information whatsoever about its track record in technology projects.

“These circumstances raise numerous questions that the Government must address. Why was the contract not awarded to the winning bidder? A project of this magnitude would have required scrutiny by the Tenders Board. What decision did the Tenders Board reach? Did DigieSoft submit a bid during the formal bidding process? Why did the Government award a substantial $3m contract to a company with no apparent track record in delivering such a solution?” he added.

“How did the Government determine the capabilities of this seemingly new company to handle a project of this size and scope? How many technical staff does DigieSoft have? How many similar projects have the company undertaken? Is DigieSoft merely outsourcing the work to another firm, thus providing no real value to the initiative?”

Mr Davis, defending the Government’s work and actions, described Mr Pintard’s assertions as “incorrect”. He added that the Infrasoft bid was never approved by Cabinet and, instead, DigieSoft went through the necessary vetting and approval by his Cabinet.

“We are happy and proud of the young Bahamian men behind DigieSoft who are creative, talented and extremely bright. It is high time young Bahamians were given equal opportunity to compete for Government contracts. These young men have educated themselves, returned home and are making a positive contribution to the Bahamas. They have earned whatever reward they receive, and deserve our support and respect,” the Prime Minister added.

Mrs Coleby-Davis said similar during her own Budget debate contribution, adding that the Port Department "successfully negotiated a contract, after a transparent and thorough procurement process, that enabled a Bahamian company, owned by a young Bahamian, to improve the Department’s digital platform to enable to revenue enhancement, with a key focus of the collection of revenue from foreign-owned boats and charters".

She said this was part of a government policy to "allocate 5 percent of all procurement contracts to businesses owned by young, qualified Bahamians".