THE Commission on Elections-Bids and Awards Committee (Comelec-BAC) announced on Friday that the awarding of the P2-billion contract for the supply of a new automated election system (AES) for the 2016 polls may take place in
February next year.
Meanwhile, technology provider
Indra Sistemas maintained its opposition to the participation of Smartmatic-TIM Corp. in the ongoing bidding process for the new AES.
Of the five companies that bought bidding documents, only Indra and Smartmatic submitted their bid proposals for the lease of 23,000 optical mark reader (OMR) machines to supplement the Precinct Count Optical Scan units that will be reused in the 2016 elections.
Lawyer Archival de Mata insisted that Smartmatic has no power to participate in the process “because, based on its Articles of Incorporation, its power is limited to the 2010 national and local elections.”
“So our petition, which we raised yesterday, is that it has no power to join in this bidding because it has no power as corporation to participate, thus, its eligibility as a bidder is questionable,” Mata said in an interview after demonstrating their machines on Friday.
Mata said Indra has formally submitted its written objection against Smarmatic before the Comelec.
Comelec-BAC Chairman Helen Aguila-Flores said it is likely the suppliers of the additional OMR and direct recording electronic (DRE) will not be known until after two months considering the forthcoming Christmas season. Hopefully by February we can award the contract, she added.
The official also cited the bidding procedure they adopted for the 2016 AES was longer “since it is a two-stage competitive bidding process.”
Flores said they are just in the first stage of the process with the submission of eligibility requirements and initial technical proposals, as well as the end-to-end demonstrations of the actual voting machines.
The Comelec-BAC is scheduled to receive the bid proposals for the DRE on Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Bureau of the Treasury Hall of the Palacio del Gobernador Building in Intramuros, Manila.