MORE than a year after the May 10, 2010, automated elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has yet to complete its payment for its information-technology (IT) service provider, Smartmatic-TIM Corp., which it still owes P500 million.

In an interview, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said the final payment is still under negotiation since Smartmatic must account for some glitches during the elections that resulted in the failure of elections in some provinces.

He said the poll body has yet to pay about P500 million to Smartmatic.

“We are still holding them [Smartmatic accountable] for certain damages. This is the reason we still refuse to complete the payment,” Brillantes said. 

The Comelec has signed a P7.2-billion contract with Smartmatic-TIM to manufacture some 82,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for the first automated elections in the country.

However, weeks before the elections, several blunders occurred that caused the Comelec to panic, such as the removal of the legally required digital signatures of the Board of Election Inspectors, and the disabling of the ultraviolet lamps component of the PCOS.

The Comelec and Smartmatic were also forced to recall all the compact flash  cards installed in the PCOS units that misconfigured the data.

Also during the elections, there were some places where the PCOS machines did not reach the designated areas, or a PCOS machine was accidentally switched from one province to another. Some provinces also experienced transmission glitches, which caused the Comelec to conduct special polls.

However, Brilliantes said the Comelec would soon pay Smartmatic part of the amount—P108 million first then P177 million.