Modernising programme boosted as the Bajan government launches four ICT tenders

Barbados has inched another step closer to modernizing its age-old public sector with the launch of four Information Communication Technology (ICT) consulting tenders.

The tenders for the procurement of ICT technology services are to equip and modernize Barbados public sector and bring the sector into the digital age. Under the modernisation program, Barbados intends to increase the use of digital technologies in the public sector, beefing up its ICT capabilities, increasing higher administration efficiency while at the same time strengthening the government’s digital economy skills by 2023. 

Of the four tenders, three of them offer five-month contracts to determine the technological status of the Barbados Immigration Department (BID), Barbados Registration Department (BRD) and the Barbados Licensing Authority (BLA) to develop ICT solutions to improve efficiency.

Interested bidders must send an expression of interest to the ministry of innovation, science and smart technology by March 24. The fourth tender offers a nine-month consulting contract to analyze the country’s legal framework and identify possible legislative, regulatory and policy gaps that may hinder the modernization program.

Winning bid to have draft plan for implementation

The winning bid will provide recommendations and draft a plan for implementation. Interested companies must send an expression of interest to the Barbados Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology by April 7. 

The tenders will be financed with a US$40mn loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which was approved way back in 2019.

Barbados’ public sector modernization program was announced in November 2019, shortly after securing the loan from the development bank. 

In a statement announcing the loan approval back in 2019, the IDP explained, “The project is expected to reduce the transactional costs related to the provision of services in the public and private sectors by enabling online public sector transactions, reducing the number of hours that companies and individuals spend to access those services, eliminating trips to do each transaction and speeding up processing times by public officers.”