Increasing The Global Competitiveness of The Bahamas
MyGateway is part of the Government of The Bahamas’ digital transformation initiative to provide more efficient and effective government services and create a path of sustainable economic development for Bahamians.
The Digital Transformation Unit (DTU) has been mandated to carry out the Government’s IT transformation through a project called the Government Digital Transformation to Strengthen Competitiveness project. This project will provide 200 government services on a centralized online portal over 5 years increasing the accessibility and convenience of requesting and receiving government services. Under the parameters of the project, DTU must also oversee the creation and implementation of a national IT strategy, and an IT blueprint; the creation of a national Cybersecurity Incident Response Team (CIRT); and the improvement of transparency in government.
The goal of this groundbreaking project is to foster the competitiveness of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas by reducing the costs of conducting business with the Government.
Specific objectives of the project are:
- Streamlining government procedures and making them available online to reduce the cost of government bureaucracy.
- Increasing the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the public sector.
- Increasing transparency of government activities and strengthening auditing and control mechanisms.
Guiding Principles
The Government intends to reach its overarching goal of increasing The Bahamas’ competitiveness by implementing key guiding principles throughout the project.
- “Making Government Work For You” – The single vision and message of the Government of The Bahamas to provide more efficient services to its clients.
- Single window facility through which we can transport inquiries, requests, documents etc. to transact business
- Electronic Identification for client verification, enabling persons to communicate and transact business with the Government of The Bahamas from anywhere in the world.
- Interoperability for transporting data securely between the relevant agencies and the user or citizen.
- Once Only concept enshrined in legislation, ensuring that once one Government agency has the information no other agency can ask for it.
- Twice at Least which ensures that client information is useful for more than one government agency.
- Data Ownership in which the client retains personal data ownership and can see agency requests to access their data.
- Public Awareness and Education for the preparation of citizens and public officers.
Project Leadership and Management
The Government Digital Transformation to Strengthen Competitiveness project is managed by the Digital Transformation Unit, a unit within the Department of Transformation and Digitization, Office of the Prime Minister. The Executive Sponsor is Elise Delancy, Permanent Secretary, Department of Transformation and Digitization, who has oversight responsibility for the Digital Transformation Unit. The project execution team collaborates with local private sector entities as well as international organizations to contextualise and implement global best practices.
