The Bruce Golding-led Cabinet is expected today to make a decision on the controversial Government Employees Administrative Services Only (GEASO) Health Scheme contract, which provides health insurance for government employees.

Dwight Nelson, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, said the GEASO Health Scheme Contract was now before Cabinet in the form of a Cabinet submission.

He said that Cabinet would be deliberating on the matter today and its decision would be made public soon.

However, a well-placed source told The Gleaner that the new administration was moving decisively to bring an end to the already prolonged process of selecting a company for the contract.

A Ministry of Finance recommendation in June, that the more than $2 billion contract be awarded to Life of Jamaica Limited, triggered strong protest from the GEASO Monitoring Committee, comprising unions representing the 65,000-strong government employees.

The GEASO monitoring group had taken the Ministry of Finance to task for excluding it from two critical stages of the selection process.

Flawed

Under the previous administration, the Finance Ministry admitted that the process to select a new provider was flawed.

Former president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, Hopeton Henry, told The Gleaner on June 27 that then Minister of Finance, Dr. Omar Davies, had acknowledged that the process was skewed.

Blue Cross of Jamaica has been administering the GEASO Health Scheme - the single largest insurance plan - for the past 10 years.

Contractor General Greg Christie had revealed in his annual report that the then Government had consistently breached its own guidelines by awarding the contract to Blue Cross of Jamaica Limited from 1995 to 2005 without competitive bidding.

Mr. Christie had criticised the Government for its decision to involve the GEASO Monitoring Committee in a review of the GEASO Health Scheme contract award decision-making process.

In a statement on July 12, Mr. Christie said the move would breach government procurement guidelines.

He said it would inflict "grave and irreparable harm to the integrity of the public sector procurement process and the independent commissions established by law to monitor and regulate the award of government contracts."