Spotlight: Guatemala seeks bids for hospital turnkey contracts

Guatemala’s public health and social assistance ministry (Mspas) will receive bids on June 20 to design, build and equip two new hospitals in the municipalities of Jutiapa and Mazatenango.

The projects will be awarded as turnkey contracts, according to procurement site Guatecompras and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei), which in 2018 approved US$193mn in financing for five Guatemalan hospital projects, including the two currently out to bid. 

The other three hospital projects – in the cities of Sololá, Chiquimula and San Pedro Carchá – have not been put out to tender yet.  

"The required processes are being completed prior to publishing the international tender for the remaining three hospitals that are part of the program," a Cabei spokesperson told BNamericas.

The ministry will reveal the bids for the Jutiapa and Mazatenango facilities on June 20 but has not set a date for awarding.  

The projects involve four stages: pre-investment, construction, equipping and operations start-up, according to the tender calendar. The ministry released designs and studies about the works via Guatecompras. Names of interested parties were not released.

The five projects should add 1,040 hospital beds to Guatemala’s public health system.

US$79mn of the US$193mn in financing came from the Korea Development Co-financing Facility for Central America.

 Credit: Cabei