And while the Health Minister made a swift and unapologetic change at the KHMH, his Ministry seems to also want to make an abrupt change in the service provider for the laundering of hospital linens. For decades, the service has been provided to all the major public hospitals by Belize Dry Cleaners Limited. It's a local company which has invested substantially in industrial equipment to corner the market - and make it so that anyone who wants to come in even on the ground floor has to drop a few million dollars.
And for that it has been rewarded with most of the major public hospital laundry contracts including he Northern, Western and Southern regional hospitals. It's an upper six figures deal, and it seems just too irresistible for some well connected friends of the government. And their eagerness to get in on the linen money has caused an unusual double tendering for the same service.
6 months ago, the Ministry of Health and Wellness put out a tender for the provision of laundry services for two years to the regional and community hospitals. Three companies bid; two of them were not even set up yet, but they quoted annual and monthly prices almost exactly twice that of the current provider, Belize Dry Cleaners. So, that was an academic choice - Belize Dry Cleaners won the tender.
But, mysteriously or maybe not so mysteriously, as these things go - without any complaints being made to Dry Cleaners about their service or not meeting standards, another identical request for bids was put out last Friday - with this one to last a year.
So, what's with the last one for two years? Well, it was awarded to the lowest bidder, but the contract with Belize Dry Cleaners was never signed, perhaps to leave the door open for a government friendly contractor. Of course, that same contractor bid last time at twice the price of Dry Cleaners, so it's left to be seen if this "wheel and come again" will result in the contract going to one of the new providers, and whether taxpayers or hospital users will be unduly burdened by it.
