Life of Jamaica's (LOJ) president, Richard Byles, speaking out for the fist time, was dismissive Tuesday of suggestions that there was "hanky panky" involved in his company being preselected for the Government Employees Administrative Services Only (GEASO) health scheme.

LOJ's bid, he told staff gathered at the company's High Flyers luncheon at the Hilton hotel, New Kingston, was the most competitive of the three companies that went after the contract. He stressed that LOJ's bid of $148 million was more than $100 million below what it now costs government to administer the $2 billion scheme under the arrangement it has with Blue Cross of Jamaica.

"After 12 years of this major government contract not going to competitive tender, it finally went to tender last year," said Byles. "We followed the process and sent in our bid in the standard normal way. The fact that we run the most efficient and largest health insurance company gives us a cost advantage."

The unions representing public sector workers have been fighting the contract award, saying their preference is Blue Cross. The unions also claim that Blue Cross' bid was given higher ratings than LOJ's and have been demanding a roll back of the decision.

The National Contracts Commission has already endorsed the award process as being above board, and the Contractor General has gone on record saying any attempt to give the unions a say in deciding a new contract award would not be recognised as the unions have no legal standing in the contract award process.

Byles said the LOJ network, which services a client base of 250,000, was capable of handling the 67,000 public sector employees captured underGEASO, and that no major upgrades to its infrastructure would be required.

john.myers@gleanerjm.com