Edmond Campbell and Tyrone Reid, Gleaner Writers

Christie

Contractor General Greg Christie says the Government's latest move to put the Government Employee Administrative Staff Only (GEASO) health-scheme contract to tender a second time is perpetuating the illegal holding of the contract by current provider, Blue Cross of Jamaica.

Christie has remained firm in his position that the National Contracts Commission (NCC) and the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) were the two independent commissions established by Parliament to ensure probity, competition, merit and transparency in the awarding of contracts.

He says the OCG would provide a comprehensive response after receiving an official report from the Government on its reasons for discarding the NCC's recommendation to award the contract to Life of Jamaica (LoJ).

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Dwight Nelson, reported on Friday that Cabinet had thrown out the NCC's proposal that the contract be awarded to LoJ, citing its dissatisfaction. In the interim, Blue Cross of Jamaica, the long-standing service provider, will continue doing so.

We've done our job

But the Contractor General said the OCG has submitted to Parliament an 81-page report on its assessment of the tender evaluation process for the GEASO health scheme. He has maintained that the evaluation process was transparent. "We have done our job and the NCC has done its job," he tells The Gleaner.

Meanwhile, Edith Allwood-Anderson, president of the Nurses' Association of Jamaica (NAJ), is chiding the Government for its decision to initiate a new contract awards process.

The NAJ president says her association has written to Public Defender Earl Witter to investigate the matter.

GEASO's monitoring committee - comprising a wide cross section of public-sector workers - voiced strong objections to the award on the basis that it was not involved in the decision to make the recommendation.