NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

A partnership of government contractors including John Snow, Inc. is protesting the U.S. Agency for International Development’s decision to award its largest-ever contract to a group led by development consulting firm Chemonics International.

The Global Health Supply Chain program is an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract worth up to $10.5 billion over the next eight years — USAID’s largest-ever single award, according to an agency representative. The program is meant to support the delivery and distribution of a range of global health commodities used to prevent and to treat illnesses, including HIV and AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.

USAID announced its award decision April 17, effectively unseating JSI, one of the agency’s largest implementing partners, from its leadership of USAID’s health supply chain programs.

“We think this was a wrong decision that could cost the taxpayers a great deal of money and perhaps put people’s lives at risk,” Joel Lamstein, co-founder and president of JSI, told Devex in an email.