Smartmatic likely to bag contract for additional OMR machines

MANILA, Philippines - After winning the bid to supply 23,000 optical mark reader machines, Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corp. will likely bag the deal for 70,977 more OMR machines, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday.

In a press conference, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the Special Bids and Awards Committee-1 (SBAC-1) has issued a resolution for the issuance of a Notice of Award to Smartmatic-TIM for the 70,977 OMR project worth P7,867,298,140.

“SBAC-1 has submitted to the commission en banc its resolution recommending the issuance of a Notice of Award of lease with option to purchase of 70,977 OMR to Smartmatic-TIM,” he added.

Last June 30, SBAC-1 had declared Smartmatic-TIM as having the “lowest calculated bid” for the project at P6,286,382,682.72.

The other bidder, Indra Sistemas S.A., was disqualified after the bid documents the firm submitted were for the 23,000 OMR machines, amounting to P1.72 billion.

In a meeting on Wednesday, the Comelec decided to award the contract for 23,000 OMR machines to Smartmatic-TIM after rejecting the motions for reconsideration filed by its rivals, Indra Sistemas and Miru Systems Co.

But according to Bautista, they decided to defer the issuance of the Notice of Award for the 23,000 OMR project, pending the results of the bidding for the refurbishment of 81,896 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

“We are still not going to make any actions in this regard because we are awaiting the results of the bidding for refurbishment, which is Aug. 1,” he said.

Three companies have expressed interest to participate in the bidding for the refurbishment of the PCOS machines by buying bid documents from Comelec. The project costs P3,130,670,549.98.

The firms include Smartmatic-TIM, Miru Systems Co. and Dermalog Identification Systems GmbH.

Under the plan, the Comelec will re-use the refurbished PCOS machines along with the 23,000 OMR machines in the May 2016 polls. The other option is the use of the 23,000 OMR machines plus 70,977 OMR machines.

The Comelec intends to decide which between these options is the best technology for the coming polls. 

New charges against Smartmatic

A group of individuals, led by the proponent of the hybrid voting system former Comelec commissioner Augusto Lagman, yesterday filed an electoral sabotage case against officials and personnel of the Smartmatic Asia Pacific for allegedly altering the source code of the PCOS machines in the 2013 polls.

In a seven-page complaint filed at the Comelec Law Department, the petitioners said the Smartmatic officials violated Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law.

Aside from Lagman, the petitioners are Leo Querubin, Maria Corazon Akol, Glenn Chong, Temario Rivera and Ernesto del Rosario. 

They named Smartmatic president for Asia-Pacific Cesar Flores, Smartmatic Asia-Pacific Global Service director Albert Castro Rico and Smarmatic Asia-Pacific Technology Manager for Deployment Marlon Garcia as respondents.

The filing of the case, however, came after the Comelec rejected Lagman’s proposal to use the hybrid Precinct Automated Tally System in the 2016 polls.

The petition showed that on election day in May 2013, the Smartmatic official and personnel were at the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting’s command center and transparency center “when just about two hours or so after the voting closed, about 12 million votes for senatorial election – figures that far exceeded the number of voters in the precincts – were received and announced by the said server.

“Smartmatic officials/personnel inexplicably changed the scripts of the un-reviewed source code at or about the time of the consolidation/canvassing during the said elections,” they noted.

They alleged that Smartmatic did the adjustment “without notifying the concerned political parties or their representatives as well as other election stakeholders.”

The petitioners added that the action of Smartmatic “constitutes an election offense/s” under RA 9369.

Meanwhile, the Comelec and the Department of Energy were urged yesterday to ensure sufficient electricity supply during the May 9, 2016 elections.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares said a stable power supply is vital to the operation of the PCOS machines that the Comelec would use in the balloting.

“Failure of elections may happen if the Comelec and the DOE cannot assure that there will be stable supply of electricity in 2016,” he said.

“We have always supported automated elections because of the fraud that happens in fully manual elections, but if there will be brownouts all over the country in 2016, we will be wasting billions in buying useless PCOS machines,” he said.

He added that the Comelec has not inquired from the DOE about the power supply situation in May.

“How will the PCOS operate, how will voting be conducted and how will the votes cast be counted if there is no electricity?” he asked.

Colmenares urged the Comelec and the DOE to prepare for contingencies in areas where there could be power outages or where the supply is not stable for the PCOS machines to run efficiently.

In the past, the Comelec bought extra battery packs and even small generators to ensure that its voting-counting machines did not run out of power supply. – With Jess Diaz