The Bahamian government is hoping to reduce revenue leakages through its new digital payment system, DigiPay. The payment system, which was designed and developed by young Bahamian technologist, Kristie Powell allows for the payment of government services online, thus doing away with the longstanding practice of agencies accepting and handling large sums of cash.

In addition to reducing revenues leakages through DigiPay, the system will also provide the added benefit of being able to better able to track revenue intake. 

Acting Financial Secretary, Marlon Johnson has given the thumbs up to the new system, which he declared that the government fully embraces. He was particularly keen on the fact that with digitisation, the administration will be better able to track revenue collection.

Unable to quantify annual revenue leakage

While not being able to quantify the amount of revenue leakage on an annual basis, Johnson pointed out that several studies have been done over the years that have indicated that revenue leakage could be anywhere up to ten per cent of total revenue intake.

According to the Bahamas Acting Financial Secretary, “What we have found and what you have seen in many audit reports that have been done is that there are persistent weaknesses in the whole management of revenue and management of cash.”

This, he argued been validated by the findings of even more recent internal audits. Speaking during a virtual press conference this week about the full integration of the courts into the new DigiPay system, Johnson made out a case for the full roll out of the system.

He referred to the government’s policy of moving away from cash-in agencies as revenue collector noting,”Because of DigiPay, we will have the ability to allow third-party financial providers for persons who can only pay in cash. And we will be tracking how that impacts our revenue flows and how that limits leakages going forward.”

Johnson continued, “What we will be tracking is what the actual revenue impact is as we transition out of these more archaic processes embrace more digital approaches and eventually go cashless across different agencies.”

Roll-out of ‘My Services’ pilot programme

The government last month rolled-out its newest digital platform, the ‘My Services’ pilot programme, which allows residents to apply and pay for driver’s license renewals, as well as birth, marriage and death certificates online.

Additionally, the Department of Immigration last year rolled out its online portal, which has since processed 23,812 transactions as of March 24.

Minister of State for Finance, Senator Kwasi Thompson pointed out that Bahamians can finally avoid the hassle of going to government offices to stand in long lines and can instead opt to receive the same services from the comfort of their homes. “In the very near future, Digipay will be available for the Port Department, the Department of Inland Revenue for real property tax collection, the Customs Department, the Road Traffic Department, the Registrar General’s Department, the Department of Labour and the Royal Bahamas Police Force,” Senator Thompson reported.

As a part of the government’s ongoing digitisation efforts to increase the ease of doing business in The Bahamas, the Minister of State for Finance disclosed that the Digital Transformation Unit will release an additional three services on the online portal, mypilotservices.gov.bs.

This is going to be released on Monday, March 29. These include the application for the police character reference, the renewal of gun licenses and the renewal of the e-passport, all online. Eventually, the government plans to add 200 official services to the portal for users to apply and conduct safe and secure payments.

Big shift to online applications

These will be placed online over a five-year period. As a result Bahamian citizens on New Providence, Grand Bahamas, Eleuthera, Abaco and North Andros ages 18 or older will now be able to apply and pay for driver’s licenses, renewal and birth, marriage and death certificates; also their police character reference, renewal of gun license and renewal of gun licenses.

Senator Thompson explained that by mid-April the new services added to the portal will include housing applications, the renewal of driver’s license permits, deeds and documents, notary public license renewal and new applications, post office box rentals and applications for new post office boxes.