 A pre-bid meeting for the smart rehabilitation of the Canriss Wellness Centre was held recently and provided potential bidders with an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the scope of work, details of the project, and requirements for submitting a bid. The Ministry of Finance also collaborated with the Ministry of Health and made a presentation on the bidding process. The project is the first wellness centre for the OECS Regional Health Project. Jacqueline Matthew-Faithry says this meeting is important as it gives the prospective bidder's first hand information on the works expected to be undertaken and also highlighted that this is the first of many meetings. Canriss is the first wellness centre that will be smarted under the project and we will move forward. There are 14 wellness centres to be smarted. So Canriss is the first and as we move on we follow the similar process. So when we move into the next facility, we invite after the bids, the tenders are advertised, we invite contractors, potential contractors again, to the pre-bid meeting and a follow-through of a walkthrough of the facility. Faithry also highlighted that work has started with engagement of the internal stakeholders such as the community nursing service and staff members at the Canriss Wellness Centre. She also says the hope is to commence engagement with residents of the community at the soonest. In the coming months, we will be engaging the residents of the community through engagements. We will have consultations, give them an idea of what it is we will be doing with the facility. You want to appreciate that this facility is the only health facility in the area, in the Canriss area. So we have to inform the users of the facility where they can seek care, how, what alternative avenues or venues that will be available to access the services that they received at the facility. The project officer also says there is an opportunity for potential contractors to bid on the rehabilitation works for the wellness centres to be smarted and explained the bidding process. Bidding for any of the smarting works on the wellness centre would require potential contractors to go through the e-procurement portal of the Ministry of Finance. From that portal, you can access the documents, the bidding documents. You also upload your submission on there. All of the information is readily available on the portal and it allows you to submit your final bid document on the portal as well. Following the pre-bid meeting, a site visit of the Canriss Wellness Centre was undertaken to allow the potential contractors an opportunity to see the work expected to be done at the wellness centre and what the centre looks like. The smart rehabilitation of the wellness centres will be funded through the World Bank under the OECS Regional Health Project. From the Project Implementation Unit within the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs, I am Funal Neptune.