By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Jan 8: After all the controversies surrounding the tendering process for the appointment of a firm to operate 108 ambulance services, the state government has decided to cancel the current process and initiate a fresh tender.
Speaking to The Shillong Times, Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Monday said during the pre-bid meeting and thereafter, there had been some disclosures concerning various documents of the bidders. “Having considered that the department sent the matter to the Law department for its comments and based on the comments, the department has decided to cancel the tender and re-tender the same at the earliest,” Lyngdoh said.
The Health department is now hoping to complete the entire tender process and identify the new service provider by March this year.
The tender for Emergency Referral Services of Meghalaya government was put out in August last year and there were about seven competitors.
This is the third time when the tendering process for appointing a service provider for running ambulance services in the state has been cancelled.
Earlier, experts and bidders wanted the government to evaluate the bids with a new high-powered committee comprising senior healthcare officials and domain experts instead of going for a fresh tender as it would be a waste of time.
Initially, the ambulance services in the state were operated by GVK EMRI and after a closure notice was issued to the firm, the government has been trying to appoint a firm to operate the services. The National Health Mission is currently running the services.
