Blue Cross of Jamaica Limited (BCJL) says it is disappointed with the Government's decision to put the contract for the public sector health insurance scheme back to tender.

In a letter to The Gleaner, chairman of BCJL, Henry Lowe, argued that there was no need to restart the entire process. He said only the evaluation procedure was flawed, a view shared by both the previous and current administrations.

"Nevertheless, since the Government in its wisdom has decided to retender, we have accepted the decision with reservation," he said.

Awarded the highest scores

Mr. Lowe said his company complied with the request for proposal (RFP) requirements and was awarded the highest scores in the evaluation criteria.

The BCJL chairman argued that in the evaluation process, his company was accredited with 104 points to Life of Jamaica's (LoJ) 96 points, with LoJ not outscoring BCJL in any of the 11 evaluation criteria.

"If this RFP was not the basis of the evaluation, then why was it the basis of the tender document?" he questioned.

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Dwight Nelson, said recently that Cabinet had rejected the National Contracts Commission's (NCC) proposal to award the Government Employees Administrative Services Only Health Scheme to LoJ.

Cabinet instructed that the contract be again put to tender.

However, Contractor General Greg Christie has insisted that the evaluation process, which resulted in LoJ being recommended for the contract by the NCC, was fair and transparent.