PHILIPSBURG – St. Maarten is one step closer to the realization of the construction of the new St. Maarten Hospital. “As the Ministry of VSA, we continue working towards providing a high quality medical system that is affordable and easily accessible for the people,” said Minister of VSA Emil Lee.
During Wednesday’s, July 20, Council Of Ministers Press Briefing, Minister Lee stated that the Ministry of VSA, along with SZV, and SMMC received 3 completed bids for the new St. Maarten Medical Center on Monday, July 18, by 2:00pm.
Some 12 original interested bidders were narrowed down by pre-selection criteria to a total of 5 bidders and of those 5, 3 submitted their bids by the cut-off time.
In order to guarantee transparency, the bids were received at the Tjon A Jong Civil Law Notary office located on Front Street, and was received in the presence of the awarding team consisting of representatives of the Ministry of VSA, SZV, SMMC, KPMG (project leader), and Royal HaskoningDHV who is an engineering consultant.
“I would like to thank everyone who put in so much effort into this bidding process, especially to the bidders that have invested a lot of time and energy to prepare their bids,” said Minister Lee. Besides the Minister of VSA, Prime Minister William Marlin, and Chairlady of Parliament Sarah Wescott-Williams also attended the receipt of the bids.
Prime Minister Marlin congratulated Minister Lee, the Ministry and SZV for bringing transparency, speed, and efficiency to the realization of the new medical center. He also thanked everyone who participated in the process, and wished the Ministry, SZV and all others involved, a continuous pleasant and positive journey.
The hospital project includes sufficient parking, medical equipment, furniture, related IT, the maintenance of the new hospital, and demolition of the existing hospital building.
Now that the Ministry has received 3 completed bids, the next process would be for the awarding team to evaluate the bids following a professional and transparent process guided by independent parties. It is expected that the contract will be awarded at the end of August.
It is also important to mention that the original set of the bids were given to the notary in order to avoid any possible future discrepancies. “The notary was responsible for verifying that all the submissions were done according to what was required by the Terms of Reference (TOR), and to ensure that the bids were received in a timely manner.” The original version of the bids will be held at the notary to ensure that the integrity of the bids remain uncompromised.
Minister Lee stated: “I am very optimistic and confident that we are on the right track to delivering the people a state of the art hospital that can provide quality healthcare at affordable rates.”
