Comelec inks P1.7-B deal with Smartmatic

MANILA, Philippines - A P1.72-billion contract to supply 23,000 optical mark reader (OMR) machines for next year’s polls was signed yesterday by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corp. following three weeks of negotiations.

The Comelec had issued the Notice to Proceed with the manufacturing of the OMR machines, Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said after signing the contract.

The OMR machines will be manufactured at the plant of Smartmatic-owned Jarltech in Suzhou, China.

The Comelec is expecting to get the initial delivery of five OMR machines in September and 200 in  October.

Six thousand units per month will be delivered in November and December, and the balance for full delivery of 23,000 units will be done by January next year.

The Comelec had already signed the Notice of Award for the lease of another 70,977 OMR units, which shall also be delivered completely in January, Lim said.

“Basically, this contract will mirror the 23,000 OMR contract so negotiation should not be as intense,” he said. “We are looking to sign that maybe next week.” 

As a procedure, Comelec and the joint  venture shall start negotiating for the terms of the contract covering the 70.977 OMR machines, amounting to P6.3 billion.

Under the plan, the Comelec will combine the 23,000 and the 70,977 OMR machines for use in the coming polls. 

Following the elections, the poll body intends to buy only the 23,000, which will be used along with the 81,000 precinct count optical scan machines for the 2019 mid-term polls.  

Also yesterday, the Comelec signed the contract for the review and certification of the source code of the OMR machines by US-based SLI Global Solutions.

The review and certification of the source code is a requirement under Republic Act 9369 or the poll automation law to have a “check and balance” and to make sure the system “is free from any possible malicious line,” Lim said.

“Basically, the SLI is here for an audit to make sure that one vote for (Secretary Mar) Roxas will be one vote for Roxas,” he said.

“One vote for (Vice President Jejomar) Binay will be one vote for Binay. One vote for (Senator Grace) Poe will be one vote for Poe. Not one vote equals five votes.” 

SLI will start reviewing the base source code on Sept. 1, according to president and chief executive officer Mark Phillips. 

“We will start Sept. 1 and the process goes through the end of December,” he said.