The contract for the public sector health scheme has been put on hold to facilitate an actuarial review of the circumstances surrounding the award of the contract to Life of Jamaica.Information Minister Donald Buchanan made the announcement at yesterday's post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
"A decision has been arrived at to have a team from the monitoring committee, along with representatives from the Ministry of Finance and Planning, constituted to carry out a study of the actuarial report which was submitted to the Ministry of Finance and which formed the basis of that ministry's recommendation to the National Contracts Commission (NCC)," the minister said.
Mr. Buchanan could not say who would make up this committee, and how long the review would take place. He, however, disclosed that the committee would make a recommendation to the NCC.
Several public sector unions had expressed anger at the manner in which the Government recommended the transfer of the $2 billion dollar contract to Life of Jamaica from Blue Cross of Jamaica.
Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies was also reported as saying the process for making the recommendation was flawed.
Mr. Buchanan also denied media reports that government owed Blue Cross millions of dollars.