More details revealed about Market Me contract

 

It has come to light that after initially rejecting continuation of the Health Ministry's contract with Market Me, the Public Procurement Commission ordered the ministry to ensure any future communication contracts for the Jamaica Moves Programme is put to tender.

 

The Market Me contract, valued at $38.9 million, has become the subject of  controversy in recent days with questions being asked about how the company was selected for the Jamaica Moves campaign.

 

It has been revealed that the company initially made an unsolicited proposal to the ministry in 2016 for a contract valued at $15.9 million and it was approved.

 

In May 2019, the ministry wanted to extend the contract but the Public Procurement Commission objected, noting that there was no evidence value for money had been achieved from the first contract and Market Me had not met the minimum required score in the bid document.

 

Speaking on Radio Jamaica's call in programme Hotline Friday afternoon, Dunstan Bryan, Permanent Secretary in the Health Ministry, explained that he went back to the commission to ask for a reversal.

 

Questioned by Hotline host Emily Shields, Mr. Bryan denied that at the time when he had made those submissions, he had become "invested" in that particular entity. 

 

"It's not out of sorts for the Public Procurement Commission to make decisions and then the ministry, department or agency appeals, based on, perhaps, some procedural misunderstanding between making a proposal or some procedural misunderstanding around the interpretation of what was documented in the submission to the commission," he sought to explain. 

 

Mr. Bryan said going back to the market for tenders would have disrupted the Jamaica Moves programme. 

 

"A procurement like can take upwards of six months to move through the different stages of the procurement process. And therefore that contemplation of having to go through an additional six months, which would mean that the programme would have to stop for the entire procurement process to be concluded- so tht risk, in terms of an implementation risk and an efficiency risk was contemplated and we thought it was appropriate for us to appeal to the Public Procurement Commission," he said. 

 

The Public Procurement Commission later reversed its decision after the ministry reduced the contract period from two years to one year.

 

The commission also said the ministry should put in place appropriate measures to ensure the project is put to tender before the contract period expires.

 

 

But there are more questions regarding the unsolicited bid submitted by Market Me to the Health Ministry.