DPM accuses former govt of multiple “lapses in judgment” in rollout of travel health visa
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Tourism, Investments and Aviation Minister Chester Cooper yesterday confirmed that Colina Insurance has now been engaged to provide travel health insurance under the country’s travel health visa program.
An auditor general’s report tabled in Parliament last week noted that the Ministry of Tourism had engaged CG Atlantic to provide the travel health insurance. The company was paid $16.78 million between November 2020 and August 2021.
“There were inquiries in relation to the performance of the health insurance with CG Atlantic,” said Cooper.
“The information was not forthcoming. We were approaching the deadline by which we needed to enter a new contract. The contract would have expired with there being no insurance in place.
“Because we did not receive the information on the claims experienced and the utilization of plan in a timely manner, we were unable to determine whether the pricing was appropriate.”
He added: “Subsequent to that, we made inquiries of other insurance companies. Colina responded in a timely manner with a rate that was better than what we had at CG Atlantic and with a profit-sharing component.
“We thought it was a much better deal than the one we had.
“CG Atlantic refused to extend the policy to allow us to do the appropriate analysis and we took the decision to move to another carrier.”
Mistakes
Cooper said there were many mistakes made during the rollout of the travel health visa program.
“I would say lapses in judgment from a government administrative perspective, and the technical advice is that they sought to be expedient in terms of getting the travel health visa in the place,” said Cooper.
There are a lot of rumors in the marketplace as it relates to the travel health visa.
– Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper
“This, of course, does not excuse the need to follow the protocols of the public service and of good governance. While there were time constraints, they ought to have gone back and ensured all the rules were compiled with.
“There are a lot of rumors in the marketplace as it relates to the travel health visa.
“I want to commend the attorney general for the work that he has done in terms of representing a very balanced report. The report will be taken seriously and where there have not been corrections with some of these mistakes, those will be fixed posthaste.”
The auditor general’s report found that contracts for the program were not executed in accordance with the country’s financial regulations.
It noted that just over $34 million in gross revenue has been collected from the health visa program, which launched in November 2020.
The report also noted that revenue was not transmitted to the Consolidated Fund on a timely basis, which the Ministry of Tourism acknowledged but said that at the time, it was more focused on customer experience than providing the required monthly accounting data in a digestible format.
