2-way fight on for poll automation contract

MANILA, Philippines - A two-way fight is now on for the poll automation contract after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reversed Saturday night the disqualification of AMA Group of Companies and Election System and Software.

In Resolution 09-006, Comelec’s special bids and awards committee (SBAC), headed by Comelec Law Department director Ferdinand Rafanan ordered the resumption of the technical screening for AMA’s bid today.

AMA would now be competing with the consortium of Smartmatic and Total Information Management Corp. which is leading the race for the P11.3-billion automation contract.

Smartmatic had already passed SBAC’s screening for eligibility, technical and financial. Its bid offer stands at P7.2 billion.

The AMA consortium had been disqualified for failing to submit the end-user’s acceptance or the certificate of acceptance pertaining to its previous poll automation projects with the states of Michigan and Minnesota in the United States. AMA argued the certificate of acceptance is not required under the Government Procurement Law and in SBAC’s bid bulletins.

Under clause 2.4 of the instruction to bidders, the sworn certification of clients that they have completed the projects was already an “equivalent document,” AMA added.

In an interview, Rafanan told The STAR once AMA hurdles the technical and financial screenings, SBAC would open its bid.

“We’ll be reviewing the documents of AMA today and by tomorrow (May 26),” he said, “we hope that we can start with the demonstration.”

Rafanan said whichever between Smartmatic and AMA consortium would be found to have the “lowest calculated bid,” it would be the one to demonstrate the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for next year’s elections.

As a rule, SBAC will test the PCOS machines for security, accuracy and power reserves among others, he added.