by Sabrina Salas Matanane

PRESS RELEASE - There will be four leased ambulances on Guam's roads within 30 days…

…and they will be brand new

…and they will come with a full year of maintenance by the vendor

All of this will come at a total cost of $480,000, or $10,000 per ambulance per month for the next 12 months.

"We need these ambulances on the road as soon as humanly possible," Governor Eddie Baza Calvo said. "I want to solve this problem once and for all."

MidPac Far East Pacific was one of three companies that submitted responses to the emergency procurement to lease ambulances. The government provided those offering to lease the ambulances to the government one of three options :
1.             To lease ambulances over a six-month contract, with the option to renew another six months;
2.             To lease ambulances over a one-year contract
3.             To lease ambulances on a month-to-month basis

MidPac Far East Pacific made the lowest offer and offered more services than the government requested. This was the third time the Calvo Tenorio administration put out requests for offers for private companies to lease ambulances to the government. This kind of offer was not made in the previous procurements.

These ambulances are in addition to the four ambulances the government is in the process of purchasing using money approved by the Department of the Interior. This also adds to the three to five additional ambulances the government plans to purchase using other fund sources.

"This will solve a lot of problems," Lt. Governor Ray Tenorio said. "The Governor and I are committed to ensuring ambulance shortages will be the thing of the past. We plan to move forward with all the original purchasing plans."

Because of this latest development, within the next 12 months, the people of Guam will have between 11 and 13 ambulances. The administration originally projected having nine or 10 ambulances within the next year. This will be the first time in years the Guam Fire Department will have a fleet of new ambulances this large.

"My medics do a great job," Fire Chief Joey San Nicolas said. "They just need the tools and resources to do their job. I'm so grateful this administration is prioritizing the ambulances and the private sector came forward to help."

The Governor is ordering his fiscal team to provide the resources GFD and its partner agencies need to maintain the fleet of ambulances regularly to avoid the breakdowns seen over the past few years.