Tenders for medical supplies to 16 SADC countries up for grabs
Dar es Salaam. Local and international manufacturers of pharmaceutical products and medical supplies within and beyond the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) can now bid for tenders after the Medical Stores Department’s advertisement.
This comes two years after the SADC ministers of Health and ministers Responsible for HIV and AIDS met and selected Tanzania’s MSD as the sole distributor of pharmaceutical and medical items for 16 countries under the SADC Pooled Procurement Services (SPPS) system.
The tenders, which have been advertised on MSD’s website entail supplying vaccines, contraceptives and nutritional supplements and other products to Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The MSD Director General Laurean Bwanakunu told The Citizen yesterday that the tender worthiness would only be made public after it has been closed and evaluated.
Without disclosing further details though, Mr Bwanakunu said, “…we welcome all Tanzanian bidders, sadc based manufacturers as well as international bidders as it is an international competitive tender.”
However, Mr Bwanakunu said, Tanzanian manufacturers would have an advantage as per the country’s Public Procurement Act which gives them 15 per cent competitive advantage.
According to details, the procurement process would be guided by the SADC Pooled Procurement Services (SPPS) guideline which was agreed upon by member countries following a Regional Technical Meeting held in Dar es Salaam last month.
The tender to supply the goods, which is expected to last for two years, will be financed by the government of Tanzania through the Medical stores Department in collaboration with SADC secretariat will mobilize sufficient funds for the operations of the Procuring Entity.
Eligible members are individuals, firms or public or semi-public agencies of Tanzania and foreign countries, the tender advert which has been published on http://www.msd.go.tz/index.php/tender reads.
It says that all goods and related services to be supplied under the contract shall have their origin in eligible source countries, and all expenditures made under the contract will be limited to such goods and services.
The nationality of the firm that produces, assembles, distributes, or sells the goods and services shall not determine their origin, the advert says. Completion of the contact would be two years from the date of signing.
