MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) The Filipino-American joint venture of AMA Group Holdings and Election Systems and Software Inc. (ES&S) yesterday bowed out of competition for the election automation contract, leaving the consortium of Smartmatic International and Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) unrivalled for the multi-billion-peso contract.

In a motion filed with the Special Bids and Awards Committee yesterday, AMA/ES&S expressed dismay at the slog of the bidding process, which is now into its fourth week and is about two weeks behind the original schedule.

The motion was also a vote of no-confidence in the SBAC as the consortium said the procurement panel was inconsistent and breached its own rules on bid bulletins that made it difficult for them to comply with the eligibility, technical, and financial documents.

“While we recognize the sincerity of the SBAC and its members in their common desire to avoid the past mistakes of past failed biddings, the AMA/ES&S joint venture no longer feels confident in the integrity of the entire process. With much regret, it is therefore compelled to withdraw its Motion for Reconsideration,” the consortium said in its two-page resolution.

“The joint venture appreciates the transparency observed by the SBAC in an attempt to make the process competitive. The joint venture, however, agrees with the views expressed by the other bidders that the SBAC changed the requirements too late into the process, that it was inconsistent with its rulings, and that it was unfamiliar with the documents required to be submitted as part of the bid,” the manifestation added.

Johnny Ramos, AMA's project director, said the decision was reached by both parties on Saturday. Ramos and John Groh, senior vice-president of the Nebraska-based ES&S, signed the manifestation.

“We are not interested anymore. It's just too much,” Ramos told reporters.

He said the company was disappointed at SBAC's reaction to Smartmatic/TIM when one of its machines malfunctioned last Tuesday. Despite the smoke that came out of the machines' wires during the testing, the SBAC still allowed Smartmatic/TIM to continue.

Before it pulled out of the bidding, AMA/ES&S was the only other entity with an active bid in competition with Smartmatic/TIM. Seven consortia submitted bid documents on May 4, but most of them were eventually disqualified for various reasons, including lack of documents and actual experience in election automation.

AMA/ES&S was declared ineligible to bid three times because of deficiencies in its eligibility and technical documents. In two instances, the SBAC granted the consortium's appeals. Last week, the SBAC declared the company ineligible again, but before the panel could issue a ruling the bidder’s motion for reconsideration, the joint venture decided to withdraw it.

SBAC chairman Ferdinand Rafanan dismissed the company's vote of no-confidence on the panel, saying “confidence is on a personal level.”

“It's from one group, one bidder, we cannot prevent that,” he said.

Rafanan raised the possibility that the consortium took itself out of the running because its financial bid was higher than the P7.2 billion tender of Smartmatic/TIM.

Ultimately, whether or not the SBAC accepted AMA/ES&S' appeal meant little if its bid was much higher than its competition, Rafanan said.

“If their bid is lower, we will open their machines. But if their bid is higher, we won't open it anymore,” he explained.

Rafanan said the machines of the Netherlands-based Smartmatic and Filipino information technology solutions provider TIM has passed the technical and tests conducted the past few days.

The machines, he noted, read the ballots fed to it with “100-percent accuracy.”

Rafanan said the SBAC was “almost” ready to award the contract, but stopped short of saying Smartmatic/TIM would get it as the bid process was not yet complete.

The procurement committee, Rafanan explained, has yet to finish scrutinizing the documents of Smartmatic and TIM for the post-qualification screening.

In particular, the SBAC is interested to know more about the corporate relationship between Smartmatic and the company that will manufacture the voting and counting machines.

According to Rafanan, they would determine if Smartmatic actually owns the company or not, which would make it ineligible to bid. Under the law, the manufacture of the counting machines and software cannot be subcontracted to another party.

Rafanan said the SBAC would submit its recommendations on the winning bidder to the commission en banc next week. After that, the winning bidder would be again tested to ensure that its machines and software are in working order, he said.