by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - The General Services Agency has officially issued another invitation for bid for Workers Compensation Insurance at the Port Authority of Guam.

As we reported, by law, the Port is required to have Workers Compensation Insurance but for years has been self insuring paying for expenses from its regular budget. For the last three years, the Port had spent between $100,000-$150,000 on workers compensation claims. In order to comply with the law, the Port put out a bid for insurance but only one vendor submitted a proposal that was estimated to cost close to $1 million for three years of coverage- a figure Port board members had called cost prohibitive.

The Port meanwhile wanted to reduce the scope and requested by the board to revisit the matter resulting in its decision to redo the bid and see if more bidders would come forward.

We should add it was last week when the port board requested management to send a follow-up letter to oversight chair Senator Tom Ada to look at amending the law that would also give the Port the option to self-insure in the event the costs are too high again.

The opening date for the IFB is August 13.