The Department of Labour officially launched its notification of vacancy platform on the MyGateway portal yesterday, which is being heralded as a big step in the ease of doing work permit business with the department.
The new online service allows employers to apply for a labor certificate electronically and upload supporting documents, pay for the service and obtain the certificate from any computer or smart device.
Minister of Labour and Immigration Keith Bell, who spoke at a launch ceremony for the platform at the Department of Labour yesterday, said making the vacancy notice application available online answers the cries of employers who have wanted something like this for some time.
He added that the digitization of this process is in keeping with the government’s vision for the digital transformation of government services.
“We are not here to simply talk about making a process paperless… we are here to herald a moment in time where we have made a government service more accessible and its process more transparent,” said Bell.
“We are talking about the ease of doing business here in the country.”
He said the Department of Labour processes about 30,000 work permits every year. According to Bell, this new online process will help to reduce fraud in that system.
Director of Labor Robert Farquharson, who also spoke at the event, said the system allows his department to share data electronically, allowing for easier investigation and fraud detection.
Wayde Watson, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, with responsibility for e-government and ease of doing business, said the MyGateway portal has processed roughly 86,000 requests for varying government services since it was launched at the end of 2020. He contended that the continuing effort to have more people interact with the government online will improve this country’s competitiveness.
“The government’s Digital Transformation to Strengthen Competitiveness project has achieved numerous groundbreaking accomplishments, implementing a number of what we call firsts for The Bahamas,” said Watson.
“We have developed the Great Bahama Bank, which is a platform for inter-agency connections, that allows users to seamlessly register, complete the verification process and access government services online.”
