MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday declared that the joint venture of SMS Global Technologies, Inc. and Sequent Tech, Inc. had the lowest calculated bid for the procurement of an online voting and counting system (OVCS) to be used in the overseas voting for the 2025 midterm elections.
Comelec Spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said that the joint venture only bid P112 million, lower than the poll agency’s allotted P465.8 million budget for the procurement of the OVCS.
The joint venture will proceed with Comelec’s post qualification evaluation for the OVCS contract, he added.
According to Laudiangco, SMS Global Technologies is a “Pasig-based Filipino company, whose projects include the Secure Online Services Cloud for the National ID, under the Philippine Statistics Authority.”
The joint venture of Voatz, Inc., EPLDT, Inc., and Ebizolution, Inc. is the second lowest bidder, as per the Comelec, with a bid of P435.5 million.
The OVCS will be used for internet voting, which Comelec said would be the primary method of casting votes among Filipinos abroad for 2025, except in countries with internet restrictions wherein only voting in-person and voting by mail would be the only available modes.
Earlier on Tuesday, four bidders submitted the bid documents to the poll agency’s Special Bids and Awards Committee:
- Indra Soluciones Technologias de la Information, SLU;
- Joint venture of SMS Global Technologies, Inc. and Sequent Tech, Inc.;
- Joint venture of Voatz, Inc., EPLDT, Inc., and Ebizolution , Inc.; and
- Joint venture of AMA group, Dasan, and Kevoting.
Among the four bidders, the joint venture of AMA group, Dasan, and Kevoting was declared ineligible for failure to submit the Credentials of Certifying Entity which is required under the bidding documents, the poll body’s spokesperson explained.
Meanwhile, Indra Soluciones Technologias de la Information’s financial bid of P459 million was disqualified by the commission as it failed to comply with the proper accomplishment of its Financial Bid Templates.
Laudingco clarified, however, that the company is still classified as an eligible bidder.
Indra Soluciones Technologias de la Information is one of the two companies who were declared ineligible during the first bidding for the OVCS project on February 21 due to a slew of reasons including failure to submit certain documents.