Comelec to scrutinize widely divergent bids

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will scrutinize the widely divergent bids of the first two consortia that passed eligibility and technical screening for its P11.3-billion automation project.

Ferdinand Rafanan, head of the Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC), said the consortium of Smartmatic of the Netherlands and Total Information Management Corp. of the Philippines offered P7 billion for the automation project, while the group of Indra Sistemas of Spain, Strategic Alliance Holdings Inc. of the Philippines and Hart Intercivic of the United States proposed some P11.2 billion.

“Their bid offers were extreme,” Rafanan said, referring to the wide disparity in the offers.

Rafanan said the bid offers would be checked by the SBAC against a “financial template” or a breakdown of how the budget would have to be spent.

“We will evaluate their financial bids (today), down to the smallest detail,” Rafanan said in a telephone interview. “We will check which bidder has the lowest calculated bid.”

The financial template contains a list of goods and services, including the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be used by the Comelec in the polls, ballots, ink for printing the ballots, website for public information campaign, electronic transmission services and paper-based automated election system.

The Comelec has earmarked some P11.3 billion to automate next year’s general elections, of which some P8 billion has been set aside for the PCOS machines. 

The remaining amount will be spent for voter’s education and the training of election officers, among others.

Rafanan said that today, SBAC would also rule on the motion for reconsideration filed by the consortium of AMA Group of Companies of the Philippines and Election System and Software of the US which was disqualified because it did not meet eligibility requirements.

SBAC had also disqualified the consortium of Gilat of Israel and F.F. Cruz and Co. Inc. of Philippines on Friday but it is expected to file a motion for reconsideration today.

Rafanan added that while other bidders may still qualify for the poll automation project, the SBAC may already open the bids of those that already passed the eligibility and technical screening.

He explained that the bidders’ ranking are not solely dependent on the amount of their bids as there are other criteria that have to be met.

As a policy, the consortium with the “lowest calculated bid” will then have to showcase its PCOS machines for the evaluation of SBAC.

The machines will be scrutinized under 26 criteria, such as their being able to detect fake ballots and to skip “repeat” ballots. The equipment should also have the capacity to run for 12 hours.

Target still feasible

Rafanan earlier said that while the bidding process had been delayed by one week, the SBAC is confident that the Comelec could still meet the target of awarding the contract before the end of the month.

The weeklong delay was due to the recent failure of the seven consortia vying for the project to pass SBAC’s eligibility standards.

The committee had to deliberate on the motions for reconsideration filed by the bidders and eventually granted four of them.

As a policy, if the machines of the consortium with the “lowest calculated bid” fail to meet the SBAC’s standard, the latter will check the machines of the bidder with the second lowest calculated bid, and so on.

Rafanan added that the SBAC remains confident that next year’s polls would be fully automated.

Senators have urged Comelec Chairman Jose Melo to keep his resolve to automate the 2010 polls and not give in to pressures from those against automation.

Overreaction

Malacañang has said the panic over the “no election” scenario next year is an overreaction by critics of the administration and absolutely unnecessary at this time.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde lamented that the opposition is using the no election scenario as well as the issue of term extension as a “publicity stunt to demonize the administration.”

Remonde said it was very inappropriate for politicians, particularly those with ambitions for the top post in next year’s polls, to use the issue to enhance their political stock.

“People should rise on the basis of their own merits and not on the basis of the politics of their own visions. People are more discerning now as we are facing the 2010 elections so that this populism and the politics of hate is not the kind of politics or the kind of leadership that the people will vote for or follow,” Remonde said.

Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio emphasized that the no-el scenario is baseless and extremely remote from reality.

“The scenario is extremely remote so there is no need to panic, to point fingers or to agitate people against anyone,” Claudio said.

With still a year to go before the elections, Claudio said there should be no doubt that the Comelec would be able to perform its mandate to hold clean, efficient and credible elections through poll automation as provided by law.

However, he acknowledged that some issues could work against the aspiration of the nation for full automation in next year’s polls, which he said the Comelec could very well anticipate and prepare for.

“The Comelec has all the time to establish a backup or contingency plan to anticipate a situation, no matter how remote, where full automation becomes difficult or risky to implement,” Claudio said.

“Nobody wants a no-el scenario. The administration will definitely not wish for such a dire and disastrous situation to happen under its watch,” he added.

Claudio assured the public that the government would do everything within its power under the law to help ensure that elections would push through as scheduled.