PATI DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION

BERMUDA

PUBLIC ACCESS TO INFORMATION (CONTRACTS VALUED AT $50,000 OR MORE) DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION NOTICE 2024

GN [   ] / 2024

The Permanent Secretary who has supervision of the Department of Immigration, in exercise of the power conferred by section 6(6) of the Public Access to Information Act 2010, gives the following Notice:

Citation

1. This Notice may be cited as the Public Access to Information (Contracts Valued at $50,000 or More) Department of Immigration Notice 2024.

Contracts to which this Notice applies

1. This Notice applies to every contract entered into by the Department of Immigration that has a total value of $50,000 or more.  The Department of Immigration operates with the support of a number of sophisticated proprietary information systems that interface with one another to assist Immigration officers in protecting Bermuda’s borders as well as identifying persons in Bermuda that are in breach of the requirements of the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Act, 1956.  In support of its operations, the Department of Immigration has entered into the following contracts —

1. Canadian Bank Note (CBN) Company developed the Border Management System (BMS) which became operational in September 2020. The annual maintenance cost for the first year was $551,000 and for years 2 through 5 it increased to $571,000. The contract also includes a fee of $154,000 for a Local Service Provider. Processing passengers at the L.F. Wade International Airport is faster and is aligned with industry standards. The system processes passenger information against a variety of local and international alerts (e.g. alert list, stop list, watch list, and terror list) upon arrival of passengers to Bermuda, and alerts officers to critical information in real time.  It also allows for overstays to be detected and provides a detailed travel history record that is used for investigation purposes.

1. ARINC Incorporated facilitates the transmission of an electronic record of the passenger manifest for each inbound flight to the Department of Immigration in advance of its arrival to Bermuda.  This advance notification allows Immigration officers time to scrutinize air arrival passenger information against alerts prior to landing.  This passenger pre-clearance allows for a more efficient processing of passengers through the arrivals hall at the L.F. Wade International Airport and eliminates the requirement for Bermudians and departing passengers to produce landing cards.  The e-manifest information is received from the airline via the Advanced Passenger Information System which is integrated with Immigration’s BMS and Customer Relationship Management System.  The e-manifest is also used by the Joint Intelligence Unit.  The one (1) year service supplement contract is valid from the 17^th March 2023 to the 16^th March 2024 at a cost of $60,000 USD. 

1. OPTUM developed and maintains the Customer Relationship Management System which is the information hub that ties all of the other Immigration systems together through a Master Person Index.  This system takes all of the data transactions from the other systems (e.g. border events, investigations, passport applications, residency permissions, work permit applications status, etc.) and groups the information together by person.  This allows the Department of Immigration to identify all transactions/interactions relating to a specific individual.  The system also automatically identifies Immigration events of interest for review by officers.  The system provides comprehensive reports and access to critical information in real time. OPTUMInsight also developed and maintains the Compliance Investigation Manager system used by Immigration Inspectors to manage and document the details and outcome of an investigation.  A one (1) year maintenance contract is valid from the 1^st April 2023 to the 31^st March 2024 at a cost of $158,164 USD. 

1. Entrust provides a secure network infrastructure for the Department of Immigration’s passport application processing services for printing British Overseas Territory Citizen passports to His Majesty’s Passport Office in the UK. The cost is based on the number of passport applications. The initial contract, dating back to 2014 was with Worldreach, but Entrust acquired Worldreach in 2021. The contract is ongoing with an effective date of 1^st April 2022. During fiscal 2022/23, the Department of Immigration paid $148,392 USD. 

1. Home Office in the UK prints British Overseas Territory Citizen passports and the cost is based on the number of passport applications sent to His Majesty’s Passport Office. During fiscal 2022/23, the Department paid $126,058 USD.

Made this 3^rd day of January, 2024.

____________________________________________

Jennifer Attride-Stirling

Permanent Secretary who has supervision of the Department of Immigration.