2019/20 Budget Communication Final Budget Communication | Page 14

substantially lower. The time-stamped system will track all activities ensuring that the integrity of
the system is maintained.
To strengthen the overall budgeting process for more accurate, timely and comparable
reporting, we will also begin the full transition to the accrual method of accounting from cash-
basis accounting. To this end, a team will be engaged to act as the Bahamian coordinator on behalf
of the Treasury Department’s Accountants.
The new system will offer public managers greater visibility and control over
budgeting and spending, as well as more effective human resource planning. Ultimately, it will
allow for greater focus on long-term policy planning, strategy and effective governance.
The procurement component of the project has produced the initial drafting of the
Public Procurement Bill, 2019 to oversee all national procurement. The new legislation will ensure
that, going forward, the awarding and management of all contracts, vendors’ accounts and
logistical arrangements for products and services in the country will be conducted in a transparent
and fiscally responsible manner. The Bill also provides the legislative framework for electronic
government procurement.
In respect to procurement reform, the electronic supplier registry has been open for
over a year and businesses are registering in anticipation of the new legislative framework. Once
this component is complete, all national procurement will be executed through the E-Procurement
and Supplier Registry System. Thus, the procurement process will not only be more efficient, but
more transparent, as every step of the process will be done in the open. All jobs will be advertised
publicly, and every contract awarded will be published online and in the newspaper.
At the end of the year, the new Procurement Department will publish an annual report
that will list all Government contracts awarded throughout the year. Thus, Bahamians will be able
to see, listed in one place, which individuals and companies have received their tax dollars for the
performance of Government contracts.
Gone will be the days when Bahamians have to wait for the Auditor General to
uncover—sometimes years after the fact—that some mysterious individual or firm has received a
million dollar contract while, in return, providing no discernible service or product.
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