‘Public bidding for PCOS repair no longer an option’

MANILA, Philippines - After two failed biddings, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday ruled out the possibility of reviving the public bidding for the refurbishment of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

In a press briefing, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body is now looking at two options – the refurbishment of the PCOS machines through negotiated or direct contracting and the use of all-new optical mark reader (OMR) machines.

“It’s now a choice between continuing or not continuing with the refurbishment. In case we don’t refurbish, the option is the lease of 70,000 OMR machines,” he noted.

Last Saturday, Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee-2 (SBAC-2) had declared a failure the second bidding for the P3.13-billion project to refurbish the PCOS machines after two bidders backed out while a third was disqualified.

Smartmatic-TIM and Miru Systems Co. backed out, citing the tight timeline.

This left the joint venture of Dermalog Identification Systems GmbH, Avante Technology and Stone of David Technical Equipment as the lone bidder but it was disqualified after failing to meet some technical and eligibility requirements.

The re-use of the 81,896 PCOS machines, with supplemental 23,000 leased OMR machines, is one of the options of the Comelec. The other alternative is to lease 70,000 more OMR machines plus the 23,000 OMR units.

According to Jimenez, the poll body is having consultation meetings with the multi-sector Comelec Advisory Council and the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) on poll automation today and tomorrow, respectively, before making a decision.

After the JCOC meeting, the Comelec will hold a special meeting to decide which of the two alternatives would be used in the 2016 polls.

“We are seeking inputs from other stakeholders. Their inputs will be in the decision making process of the commission,” he added.

One of the factors that would be considered by the Comelec in making a decision is the time during which suppliers could deliver the machines, be they PCOS or OMR.

Based on Comelec’s timeline, the suppliers must start delivering the machines by January 2016.

Jimenez meanwhile said they already issued the Notice of Award to Smartmatic-TIM last July 31 for the lease of 23,000 OMR machines, amounting to P1.72 billion.

He added the Comelec and the joint venture are now in preparatory talks on details of the contract. 

Hybrid polls

Poll watchdog Automated Election System (AES) Watch has resorted to online survey to push for use of hybrid system Transparent Election System (TAPAT) in the 2016 polls.

In a petition on change.org, the Comelec was asked to consider the Filipino-made lotto-style voting technology.

“The TAPAT developers, the Villasantas, just built an android program and installed it in the tablet. It’s not rocket science! The Comelec should heed this call!” AES Watch spokesman Nelson Celis said in a statement.

Created by Filipino computer engineers Arnold and Angelo Villasanta, the TAPAT system requires voters to shade ballots with the pre-assigned numbers of their chosen candidates.

After the ballots have been accomplished, they will be scanned through the optical mark reader (OMR) machines.

The machine will then issue a receipt, called voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT), which would allow voters to verify if the machines read their votes accurately, before dropping both the receipt and the ballot into the ballot boxes.

The petition showed that it would take up to three minutes per voter to accomplish the ballots.

“The tablets to be used in TAPAT are commercially off-the-shelf gadgets. Not only cheap and easy to use, tablet technology is considered mature and there are local companies producing this,” it said.