Said INSO’s Bid should have been disqualified --- No Dialysis, Oncology Center, and Special Wing will be included if INSO constructs Hospital.
PHILIPSBURG:---KPMG and USZV has one more hurdle to cross before the finalization of the contract for the new hospital is realized and they may well have to face court litigations if the contract is awarded to INSO. Two of the three companies that bid on the project has submitted their objections to the project manager at KPMG. According to information and documentation, SMN News obtained the objections were filed on August 12th, 2016.
Some of the arguments used by VAMED, the Austria company that worked on a concept for USZV invested a significant amount of time and also incurred significant costs in order to participate in the tender for the new hospital on St. Maarten. The company also argued that by the media statements made by the current Minister of VSA will tarnish their reputation, and the decision taken by USZV to award the contract to INSO is not correct especially on the instructions for the tendering.
According to the information, SMN News obtained some 12 companies were interested in the project, but only five of them were qualified to bid. Of the five only three of the companies participated in the bid which are VAMED, INSO, and BAM PHILIPS.
INSO’s pricing for the construction of the hospital is in close proximity of USD 60M while their maintenance cost for a period of 20 years will be USD 46M
VAMED, on the other hand, submitted a bid which amounts to USD 80M for construction and $100M for maintenance for the 20 year period. It should be noted that in the concept and bidding VAMED agreed to provide a “full turn-key, life cycle” hospital and they would have maintained not only the structure but also the equipment over the 20 year period. As for BAM PHILIPS, their bid was in the range of USD 140M.
While there is much talk about VAMED obtaining the contract to construct the new hospital without a bidding process being held research done by SMN News shows that VAMED spent six months preparing a full concept for USZV because they were given a letter of intent that they will obtain the project if they were able to provide St. Maarten with the hospital they need at the price USZV could afford.
USZV and KMPG the consultant can well be looking at a court case because they both led VAMED to believe that they were going to get the project after the company spent months working with USZV to prepare the concept free of charge since they were almost sure they were going to get the project that will cater to St. Maarten’s needs even though the island is small.
Research shows that VAMED, contacted Cees Klarenbeek of the St. Maarten Medical Center when they saw on SMMC website that they wanted to expand the hospital and when they also saw the drawings from the UPP leader Theodore Heyliger on billboards which were also online during the 2014 parliamentary elections. Due to this VAMED contacted and eventually met with Klarenbeek of SMMC, the interim director USZV Glen Carty and KMPG where they introduced themselves as the company that builds only hospital and has built over 700 medical projects around the world. During the discussions (negotiations) with the tripartite committee VAMED proposed to build a new hospital that would include a dialysis center, and a private wing that the hospital could rent for USD 150M but USZV said they were only willing to invest USD 100M however after fierce planning and to deliver what St. Maarten wants the price of the construction falls in the range of USD 105M. The hospital would have been constructed in five phases, one being the dialysis center, the oncology center, and the private wing were all part of the plan if USZV had accepted the plan VAMED provided them with since SMMC neither USZV had a master plan. At some point, USZV decided that they would have dropped one of the five phases, mostly likely the oncology center. In the bidding process, the much-needed facility for cancer patients was left out.
The SMMC section would have gotten four operating rooms that would have been fully equipped while the private (separate) wing would have had six theaters for smaller surgeries that would have also been available to SMMC especially for patients that had to be referred abroad for medical care SMMC could not provide, while at the same time they were going to provide more beds for SMMC both in their section and the private wing.
The plan VAMED had for USZV was for the hospital to generate funds through the separate wing and through cutting cost by sending patients overseas while collecting rent from those that would have rented that wing.
VAMED also even proposed to finance the hospital but USZV (SMMC) could not have provided the company with a business plan in order to show how they would have repaid the loan.
VAMED started their project for USZV in 2015 and by the first week of November 2015 the company delivered the concept which was tweaked on the request of USZV and KPMG.
Today, the company feels that the current Minister of VSA Emil Lee thinks because he owns a construction company he knows what it cost to build a hospital and to fully maintain it so that equipment do not fall apart. The company also believes that Minister Lee does not think that the private wing is needed even though USZV would be saving monies by sending patients abroad for surgeries that SMMC cannot conduct. They are also annoyed that the Minister twisted the truth when it comes to the plan when he said that SMMC would have had two operation rooms and the private wing would have had four. SMN News managed to obtain the plan that VAMED had for the new hospital that plan shows that SMMC would have had four fully equipped theaters while the private wing would have had six operating theaters, a total of ten operating rooms at the new hospital.
In the objection, VAMED requested that KPMG discloses INSO’s price elements and structure, specifications in order for them to determine functional and technological is in conformity with the tender. VAMED wants the number of square meters in order to see if INSO complied with the minimum as per the tender documents and their net gross factors, medical equipment, mechanical and electrical equipment among other things.
In their conclusion they said based on their calculations INSO’s bid should have been declared invalid and their bid should have been the winning bid. They urged KPMG to remain open and transparent and to reconsider their award recommendations and to provide the company with their feedback along with the information they requested. VAMED also made clear to KMPG that after receiving the feedback and information they would need sufficient time in order for them to start legal proceedings.
SMN News made several attempts to get a direct comment from VAMED in Austria on Thursday but they refused to comment on the ongoing process.
