And they were chosen before the legal dispute became known. So would the partnership still have been considered for service provision if the partners had sorted out the dispute? Figueroa said that they prefer to not be associated with persons in tricky situations:
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI
"Well, we do a public tender, inviting support services to apply to become part of NHI. So everybody who's interested can apply. And she was one of the many that applied to become part of the NHI. We do site visits to all the applicants to make sure that, number one, they're certified by the Ministry of Health, they have the license, and that they meet the basic standards. When we went there, they had a nice, they have a nice lab. Actually, when I was there, we went to do the site visit. So we knew from the beginning that they were both working together. So she was just part of the general lab that had expressed an interest to participate."
Reporter
"Okay, if the partnership were to return to a functional state free of legal disputes, would they still be able to sign the contract for the provider to be a provider?"
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI
"This is something that we are discussing and that we are going to get a legal opinion because from our standpoint, we don't want to deal with anybody that has had this kind of legal issue. We have other lab providers, so the services will be there. But personally, I don't want to deal with an entity that has that kind of background."
Reporter
"Is there any specific reason as to why you guys try to avoid conflicts of that sort?"
Dr. Ramon Figueroa, General Manager - NHI
"Because we're a national program financed by basically public funds, and we have to be very careful how we operate. And we try to avoid as much as possible any inclusive, any notion that we're doing something wrong with, wrong individuals."
