KANOO SHOULD SIMPLY KEEP QUIET…NOT YOUR BUSINESS

Nicholas Rees is at the centre one supposes of this photo with the co-founders of Kanoo, the money payment solution company, that is at the centre of a public row about  the Health Visa that the Bahamas Government commissioned.  They collect the money and hold the money and well we are not quite sure how or if it gets into the consolidated fund. They issued a statement to the press which was published on Friday 2 July 2021 saying that they were clean as a whistle and denouncing their critics as politically and ill motivated.

The Leader of the Opposition Philp Davis at his press conference last week called the Government out, to tell us where the health visa money is going.  The Ministry of Tourism responded with a long piece essentially saying they had to act quickly, they acted at the behest of the airlines and that well they would do it in a heartbeat if they had to.  They thought that the  designers of the  visa did a  good job and so did Kanoo in offering an instant solution.  They really didn’t have time to go to a public tender. This public discussion was what Kanoo’s owners were responding to.

On the face of it, their explanation is foolish.  They (the FNM)  just passed a law which says that they believe in public tendering for everything and sundry.  The FNM mantra was transparency, even though the PLP told them that was nonsense.  Secondly, the Government itself already has payment portals that could have been used to  facilitate this.  Thirdly, don’t blame the airlines because the U S Government simply requires evidence of the test and a signed statement that you are not engaged in fraud and you’re on the plane.

This smells of a racket. Pure and simple.

We simply have to say this about and to Kanoo.  If you want to get into a public row about who and what you are with the PLP that’s fine, the PLP is more than up to the task. But we certainly think you do not want that.  So it’s in your best interest at this point in time to keep quiet. There is nothing for you to say.  You did not change a single mind or convince one single soul that you are as spotless as Caesar’s wife in this matter.

The issue is the Government and its actions, not Kanoo. In the old days, parents used to tell their children: “stay out of big people’s business.”