In the wake of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's allegation that industrialist Anil Ambani was being favoured in rolling out an insurance policy in Jammu and Kashmir, the state government Saturday said the scheme has been implemented in a fair and transparent manner.
"Dispelling the rhetorical misgivings being created about the Group Medical Health Insurance Scheme rolled out by the JK government recently, the state government Saturday made it clear that the scheme has been implemented after following all the required procedures in a fair and most transparent manner," an official spokesperson said here.
Gandhi took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday for allegedly favouring Anil Ambani after the Jammu and Kashmir government gave his company the contract for executing the government employees mediclaim policy.
"When your BFF is the PM, you can get the 1,30,000 Cr. Rafale deal, even without relevant experience. But wait. There's more! Apparently, 4,00,000 JK Govt staff will also be arm twisted into buying health insurance ONLY from your company!," the Congress president tweeted, tagging a media report which suggested Anil Ambani was being favoured.
Gandhi's comments also referred to the offset deal between French aerospace giant Dassault Aviation and Ambani's Reliance Defence after the BJP-led NDA government entered into an agreement with France to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets.
The state government spokesperson said the entire bidding process has been done in a competitive, clean and transparent manner in line with the Financial Rules and Regulations as well as Chief Vigilance Commissioner guidelines.
He said the bidding process was monitored by a team of senior-most officers, well-versed with the financial rules and regulations and was conducted through strict technical and financial evaluation.
"In the first round of bidding, only one bid was submitted by a public sector undertaking (PSU) and as the first round concluded with poor response it had to be terminated. Thereafter, a pre-bid conference was organised, where both private and PSU companies participated and the tender was reissued with minor changes in technical parameters on their suggestion," he said.
The spokesperson said all the PSUs as well as top private insurance companies were contacted to participate in the bidding process as a result of which in the second round, nine companies, including private and public sector undertakings, submitted their bids, out of which five qualified on technical evaluation criteria.
"The financial bids of five qualified companies were opened and it emerged that Reliance General Insurance Company with a quoted premium of Rs 8776.84 was at L1, National Insurance Company Ltd with quoted premium of Rs 11918.00 at L2, ICICI Lombard with quoted premium of Rs 17691.74 at L3, Bajaj Allianz with quoted premium of Rs 23476.10 at L4 and United India Assurance Company with quoted premium of Rs 27225.00 at L5," the spokesperson said.
He said the only PSU which participated in the first round and the bid of which was not opened due to poor response came second in the second round with a substantially higher premium quoted than L1.
"Further, the gap between L1 and other bidders was substantial and, therefore, there was no question of lack of competition," he said.
The spokesperson said more than four years ago when ICICI Lombard was awarded the contract, the premium was Rs 6,196 per annum.
"However, coverage was much less than this time as the scheme was previously restricted to Gazetted employees only," he said, adding that although the earlier policy also covered employee plus five members of his family, the coverage was only for a sum up to Rs five lakh and between the age group of three months to 80 years.
He said on any criteria of coverage, the number of hospitals where cashless service will be provided (more than 4,700 hospitals across the country) and the prevalent market rates, the premium quoted by the successful bidder is extremely competitive.
"It is also known that at the premium of Rs 6,196 five years back, the then company suffered losses, as the total amount paid out by them for treatment was higher than the premium collected," he said.
The spokesperson said only 3.5 lakh regular employees of the government are expected to be covered under the scheme while for pensioners, All India Service officers, daily wagers/casual labourers and those government employees who are already covered under a health insurance scheme on their own, it will be optional.
He said the expected outgo of the premium would be approximately Rs 310 crore per annum.
The spokesperson said misleading information was being spread to create doubts in the minds of the people.
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