Health Ministry agencies awarded $19.4 million in contracts to Market Me

Parliament's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) has learned that public bodies that fall under the Ministry of Health and Wellness have awarded $19.4 million worth of contracts to Market Me Consulting Limited since 2017.

Senior technocrats in the ministry were summoned to the PAAC to explain the circumstances under which Market Me Consulting Limited received two contracts for the Jamaica Moves health promotion and behaviour change campaign.

The $19.4 million contracts increase to $87.5 million, the overall sum paid to Market Me from 2017 to date.

The ministry had paid $54.8 million for two Jamaica Moves contracts and another $13.3 million for other work done in the ministry and related public bodies. 

The National Family Planning Board is one of the public entities under the Health Ministry that awarded a contract to Market Me.

The engagement, which was through the direct contract methodology was worth $4.9 million.

PAAC Chairman Dr Wykeham McNeill asked Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Dunstan Bryan if that contract was put to tender.

"It went through the procurement process of the National Family Planning Board," Bryan said.

McNeill pressed to know whether any of the contracts that were awarded to Market Me went through a competitive process.

"All of these contracts were given through mechanisms that did not allow them to go out to public tender. Am I correct?" McNeill asked.

"Yes," Bryan replied.

McNeill said there should have been some level of suspicion should have been raised that one company would have got $87 million worth of contracts with none of them going to public tender.

Committee member Michael Stewart seemingly drew the ire of Bryan who rejected any assertion that the contracts awarded by the ministry and its related bodies were splintered.

"I would hate for us to walk away from this interrogation and say the ministry has been splintering our contracts," said Bryan.

According to him, he and his colleagues in the ministry frown on splintering contracts or breaking them up into smaller amounts to escape the tender process.

Bryan also said it has been a tough period for the ministry.

"I cannot leave this meeting without articulating to this committee that the timing that we have had to endure for this type of interrogation is very, very challenging for us," said Bryan adding that the ministry and its staff had been under “duress for the last 18 months”.

He said the ministry had been battling dengue for some time and later had to face the onset of COVID-19.

Health Ministry contracts to Market Me: 

• $15.9 million – first contract for Jamaica Moves
• $38.9 million – second contract for Jamaica Moves
• $13.3 million – payments for works done for the ministry

Other contracts:

• South East Regional Health Authority – 2017 onwards - $2.9 million
• North East Regional Health Authority – 2017 onwards - $946,000
• Western Regional Health Authority – 2017 onwards - $8.6 million
• Southern Regional Health Authority – 2017 onwards - $2.1 million
• National Family Planning Board - $4.9 million

Total: $87.5 million