Comelec delays awarding of poll automation contract

MANILA, Philippines – Owing to the various motions for reconsideration filed by disqualified bidders, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was forced to delay the awarding of the automation contract for the 2010 polls by three weeks or until middle of June.

Lawyer Ferdinand Rafanan, head of Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC), said they would not meet the target of finishing the bidding before the end of May.

“We are behind schedule. The MRs (motion for reconsiderations) were not taken into account when we set our original timeline,” Rafanan said.

Seven companies vied for the P11.3-billion automation project when the SBAC opened its bidding early this month.

But after disqualifying several bidders, the SBAC had been flooded with MRs.

Last Saturday night, the SBAC reversed the disqualification of the consortium of AMA Group of Companies and Election System and Software, enabling the group to challenge leading bidder Smartmatic and Total Information Management Corp.

“There will be some kind of speeding up to make up for the lost days. Timeline is not irreversible. It can easily be adjusted. We will have to speed up the production of machines and their customization,” Rafanan said.

He also directed the two bidders to prepare their reply to news reports that were critical of them.

The Smartmatic group was reportedly investigated by the United States government for allegedly rigging the 2004 elections in Venezuela in favor of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

On the other hand, AMA founder Amable Aguiluz V allegedly had political ties with President Arroyo and former President Joseph Estrada, who might run in the next polls.

Aguiluz was a consultant of Estrada and served as ambassador to the Gulf Cooperation Council of President Arroyo.

“We told them to submit their answers this early to speed up the process. There were reports and we cannot close our eyes on this. We will be tackling those matters eventually anyway so they might as well prepare their answers now and give them to us,” Rafanan said.

Asked about possible repercussions of the SBAC’s decision to reconsider AMA on other bidders, he said AMA had “the documents from the beginning, they only looked at it or viewed it differently.”

AMA was disqualified for failing to submit certificate of acceptance pertaining to its previous poll automation projects with the states of Michigan and Minnesota in the United States.

“The other bidders have different situations... They did not have the document required. Nothing to interpret,” he explained.