Tyrone Reid and Edmond Campbell, Staff Reporters

Christie

Despite threats from factions within the public sector over the handling of the Government Employees Administrative Services Only Health Scheme (GEASO), Contractor General, Greg Christie has warned government that bowing to pressure by not awarding the more than $2 billion contract to Life of Jamaica (LoJ) would set a dangerous precedence.

Mr. Christie argued that not following through on the Ministry of Finance and Planning's recommendation, which was endorsed by the National Contracts Commission (NCC) to award the contract to LoJ, would deal a devastating blow to the country's, already wounded, contract awards process.

However, the general council of the 22,000-strong Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), unanimously passed a resolution condemning the action of the Ministry of Finance and Planning. The JTA is the second of several public sector groups, which make up the country's single largest health insurance scheme, to publicly condemn the possible change of carrier.

In a release, the JTA's general council stated that transparency is needed in the award of the public sector health contract and raised questions of corruption in the process.

"And be it resolved that the Jamaica Teachers' Association takes the necessary steps to educate its members as quickly as possible as to the injustice and possible corruption in the awarding of this contract," read a section of the JTA's original resolution.

Among other things, the resolution, which was unanimously passed, contained a threat to report the Government to the International Consumer Commission to which it is a signatory. The resolution also revealed that the teachers were demanding that "the Ministry of Finance should meet urgently with the unions to reverse its recommendations".

The document also revealed that to the best of its knowledge, Blue Cross obtained the highest score among the three bids that were submitted for the managing of the health scheme. The resolution also claimed that "the Government's actuary recommended the continuation of Blue Cross as the carrier and that the Government was seeking to overrule the recommendations of its own actuary for unknown reasons".

At the same time, reports suggesting that Blue Cross would have suspended its coverage of the 67,000-strong public sector health scheme were dismissed yesterday by highly-placed sources at the company.

Still, Mr. Christie is insisting that the integrity of the procurement process be upheld. In a letter to the Financial Secretary, Colin Bullock, Mr. Christie argued that the recommendation by the Finance and Planning Ministry, which was endorsed by the NCC, to award the contract to LoJ was conducted in a transparent manner.

Mr. Christie pointed out in his annual report that the scheme was unlawfully awarded to the current providers for 10 consecutive years without being subject to competitive bidding, which was in breach of established government guidelines.

While Cabinet is expected to make a decision on the awarding of the contract shortly, at least two unions are calling for the intervention of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.