Psemas tender delayed
A technical committee has been appointed to evaluate the tender requirements for a new Psemas administrator, who will administer the 200 000-member civil servant medical aid.
HENRIETTE LAMPRECHT
WINDHOEK
The Central Procurement Board has appointed a technical committee to evaluate the requirements of the tender document for a contract to administer the 200 000-member medical aid fund for civil servants, the Public Service Employees Medical Aid Scheme (Psemas).
Therefore, the closing date for bids has been postponed to 24 August.
Potential bidders had complained that the document was formulated in a way that excluded all but the current administrator.
Methealth Namibia Administrators have been administering Psemas for several years.
Fair and transparent
Procurement board spokesperson Johanna Kambala says they invited bids on behalf of the finance ministry on 4 June. The Psemas tender was open to all Namibian entities, she said. According to Kambala, several potential bidders requested explanations of the tender requirements and the board responded to them in writing.
The board is committed to a fair and transparent bidding process and in line with this, it decided on 9 July to appoint a committee to evaluate the bidding criteria, she said.
Asked whether the document would be amended to give more bidders a chance, Kambala said that would be up to the technical committee to decide.
The committee would submit its recommendations to the board after evaluating the criteria, she said.
Bidders would be informed of any amendments of the tender document.
Numbers
The director of Prosperity Health, Bertus Struwig, said earlier that it appeared the document had been formulated to exclude all potential bidders except Methealth.
One of the requirements was that the bidder must have administered a medical aid fund of the same size as Psemas - 143 000 beneficiaries or more - for the past five years.
According to Struwig, that would require having a 70% market share of the private medical aid sector in Namibia. He recommended that the criteria be amended to include administrators of medical aid funds with 50 000 beneficiaries – which would be a 25% market share.
[email protected]
WINDHOEK
The Central Procurement Board has appointed a technical committee to evaluate the requirements of the tender document for a contract to administer the 200 000-member medical aid fund for civil servants, the Public Service Employees Medical Aid Scheme (Psemas).
Therefore, the closing date for bids has been postponed to 24 August.
Potential bidders had complained that the document was formulated in a way that excluded all but the current administrator.
Methealth Namibia Administrators have been administering Psemas for several years.
Fair and transparent
Procurement board spokesperson Johanna Kambala says they invited bids on behalf of the finance ministry on 4 June. The Psemas tender was open to all Namibian entities, she said. According to Kambala, several potential bidders requested explanations of the tender requirements and the board responded to them in writing.
The board is committed to a fair and transparent bidding process and in line with this, it decided on 9 July to appoint a committee to evaluate the bidding criteria, she said.
Asked whether the document would be amended to give more bidders a chance, Kambala said that would be up to the technical committee to decide.
The committee would submit its recommendations to the board after evaluating the criteria, she said.
Bidders would be informed of any amendments of the tender document.
Numbers
The director of Prosperity Health, Bertus Struwig, said earlier that it appeared the document had been formulated to exclude all potential bidders except Methealth.
One of the requirements was that the bidder must have administered a medical aid fund of the same size as Psemas - 143 000 beneficiaries or more - for the past five years.
According to Struwig, that would require having a 70% market share of the private medical aid sector in Namibia. He recommended that the criteria be amended to include administrators of medical aid funds with 50 000 beneficiaries – which would be a 25% market share.
[email protected]
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