São Paulo – Foreign companies will be able to participate in the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) launched by the São Paulo City Hall to build and improve 12 hospitals and 4 diagnosis centres in the city. The notice was published early this month and makes no restrictions on foreign participants. To bid, however, they must appoint a legal representative in Brazil and them, just like the Brazilian companies, establish a specific-purpose society (sociedade de propósito específico – SPE) in Brazil in order to operate under the project.
The tender concerns the building of three new hospitals (Balneário São José, Brasilândia and Capela do Socorro), new facilities for six existing hospitals (Dr. Alexandre Zaio, Dr. Benedicto Montenegro, Dr. José Soares Hungria, Prof. Mário Degni, Prof. Waldomiro de Paula and Tide Setúbal), and refurbishing work at other three hospitals (Dr. Alípio Correa Neto, Dr. Arthur Ribeiro de Saboya and Dr. Ignácio de Proença de Gouveia) and the building of four diagnosis centres in the Midwest, East, North and South of São Paulo.
The deadline for bidding is July 25th, and according to information from the tender notice, the company that offers the lowest annual consideration value, which is the payment that the government will make to the concession holder for the duration of the contract. The deadline for delivery of the works varies from one hospital to another, but the minimum period is eight months after the signing of the contract and the maximum is 26 months. Investment funds and consortiums may bid, the latter as long as they have four members at most.
Before evaluating the consideration payment offered by each bidder, however, the committee in charge of the process will assess the investor’s technical and financial capacity, which will be criteria for elimination. One of the requirements, among others, is to have carried out projects worth 400 million reals (US$ ) or more. The contracts will remain in effect for 15 years. According to the tender notice, they may be renewed, with the condition that in the three previous years, the investor has attained a monthly rate of at least 80% of the maximum level of service provision, which is a means of measuring of the quality of the services supplied. The renewal, however, is not obligatory.
The winning bidder will also supply some types of services, such as cleaning and foods at healthcare units, during the contract. It will not, however, be responsible for managing the establishment of providing medical services. Those areas will either be handled by the government or entrusted to a Social Healthcare Organization (Organização Social da Saúde – OSS), philanthropic entities that operate in healthcare management.
The works have been divided into four batches, and bids must be submitted for each of them. According to information from the press office of the Municipal Secretariat for Health, the three winners should be announced in August. Using the PPP model was the solution found by the city hall to expand healthcare services in the city. At the end of the partnership, thet consortia will have invested a total of 1.1 billion reals (US$ 685 million).
Information
View the tender notice at http://ppp.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/edital.htm
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum