Bahamas Signs E-Government MoU With Canada

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

09 August 2005

The government of the Bahamas has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian government that will help with the acceleration of e-government throughout the Bahamian public service.

The MoU was signed on Monday, 25th July 2005 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Ottawa, and the engagement was recently approved by Cabinet to advance the establishment of the national communications and information technology framework.

According to the Bahamian government, the project will, amongst other outcomes, harmonise all current e-government initiatives, up-date the Government’s e-government policy and set a strategy for meeting short-term (one year), mid-term (three years) and long-term (five to ten years) goals.

In her remarks at the signing ceremony, Financial Secretary, Mrs. Ruth Millar acknowledged Canada’s pre-eminence in e-government services and welcomed the alliance as one that would greatly assist the Bahamian Government in meeting the primary challenge of ensuring that users of its government services, wherever they are located, have equal opportunities to satisfy their needs. She highlighted the fact that both countries shared similarities based on the Westminster style of government.

The Canadian Government’s Department of Consulting and Audit Canada, under the direction of Mr. Ram Narayan, will lead the project. The CAC team visited The Bahamas in May of this year for a preliminary scoping mission, which involved dialogue with various public and private sector stakeholders.

Consulting and Audit Canada has provided similar consulting services to other countries across the globe.

Recommended