Hospital Construction Suspended
The Municipal Development Fund (MDF) announced yesterday that the design and construction of the planned Infectious Pathology, AIDS, and Clinical Immunology Scientific-Practical Center has been suspended. The MDF announced a call for proposals for the construction project in December of last year. A winner was selected and tasked with building a 100-bed infectious hospital for 26 million GEL ($10.6 mil). Construction on the hospital was meant to begin in May 2018 and finished in December 2020. The price was estimated based on the bidding company's calculations and not a detailed project-cost estimate documentation. The tender called for a company to write the hospital's documentation and to build the hospital.
Since the design assignment was general in nature, the technical parameters and characteristics of the hospital were not specifically described in the proposal. According to the MDF, “in the case of the tender announced on design and construction, the customer has limited access to design documents and technical indicators and their quality control.” The new management of the BIS Foundation found that in this case it would be difficult to get the desired quality and parameters of the hospital. In order to get a better adapted design with modern standards and requirements, the Foundation believes that it is necessary to divide the tender. The renewed competition will be announced only after the preparation of project-cost estimate documentation, taking into account the specifics of the infectious hospital, regulatory requirements and the overall complexity of the project. Since the participation of local and international experts will be integrated into the project, the MDF will announce a new tender for the construction of the hospital based on comprehensive pre-project documentation.
By Samantha Guthrie