Comelec still owes P180M for PCOS machines

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) still owes election technology provider Smartmatic International some P180 million, seven months after the midterm polls.

“We have not yet settled the balance, which is 10 percent of the P1.8 billion,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said in an interview.

The contract between the poll body and technology provider was for the acquisition of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used during the May elections.

The Comelec earlier purchased almost 80,000 PCOS machines, first used during the 2010 presidential elections.

“We want to see if they have done their job. That is the purpose of having a retention fee,” Brillantes said, explaining that the retention fee was needed in order to have some hold on Smartmatic as the poll body was still in the process of reviewing the technology provider’s performance in the last national elections.

Brillantes said the poll body had yet to decide on when it would settle its debt.—Tina G. Santos