Poll crisis looms as bidding fails

Comelec office. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Lawmakers warned that the delay in the procurement of election equipment and services by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has inched closer to becoming a “major crisis” after Wednesday’s bidding for the poll results transmission service also failed.

Capiz Rep. Fredenil Castro said the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms would use its “coercive powers” to compel Comelec commissioners and members of its bid and awards committee (BAC) to attend its hearings Thursday to explain the series of failed biddings for election equipment and services that has raised doubts on the poll body’s ability to meet the deadline for the 2016 automated elections.

Castro was annoyed that of the four Comelec commissioners, only Acting Comelec Chair Christopher Lim was present and only one from the BAC attended yesterday’s committee probe on the controversial moves made by Comelec in the failed bidding to lease 23,000 new precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines worth P2.5 billion.

“The chair takes cognizance of the gravity of the implications [of the failed biddings]. If ever we cannot resolve this problem at the soonest time possible, it will interrupt or delay the preparations [for the next elections],” said Castro.

Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice said that less than a week after failing to procure a lease contract for new PCOS machines, the Comelec suffered yet another failed bidding when Smartmatic-TIM did not join Wednesday’s bidding for the contract to transmit the results of the 2016 elections.

“The Comelec’s failure to bid out the PCOS machines has had a domino effect on its entire schedule for the 2016 elections. From initially one or two months delay, we are looking at a longer downtime especially with biddings for other equipment and services likely to be held up as well,” said Erice. “This is certainly becoming a major crisis.”

Smartmatic president Cesar Flores said his company was the only expected bidder for the Comelec’s poll results transmission service. However, Flores said Smartmatic did not want to make an offer until the Comelec has finalized its bidding for the 23,000 PCOS.

Flores explained that their offer involved “fixed costs” that assumed the deployment of 105,000 PCOS machines (including the 82,000 PCOS machines the Comelec bought from Smartmatic in 2010). If the Comelec decided to just use the 83,000 PCOS in its warehouse, Flores said it would have serious cost implications on Smartmatic which could not be recovered.

Flores said that Smartmatic was still licking its wounds after its bid for the 23,000 PCOS machines were rejected on a “flimsy technicality” when it wrote a dash instead of zero on four items in its bid document, specifically the software component which it was giving for free as part of the package.

Smartmatic offer

Smartmatic’s offer of P2.229 billion—P1.72-billion and P505-million purchase options—was 11 percent lower than the P2.5 billion approved budget for the contract. Flores explained that their offer was also 15 percent lower than the PCOS machines it sold for P60,000 each in 2010.

“We’re concerned that if the BAC will be using technicalities to dismiss our bid even though we [provide] our best efforts to give Comelec our best price and significant savings—in this case, more than P700 million—then we’re really worried about participating in a second bidding,” Flores said.

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said Comelec BAC officers should explain why they disqualified Smartmatic while it did not disqualify outright Indra Sistemas, a Spanish state-owned information technology firm, despite offering a bid of P3.686 billion or 50 percent higher than the floor price. Barzaga said that Indra should bare its motive for submitting a losing bid.

Barzaga said that further complicating the Comelec’s situation was the three vacant seats in the board of the poll body.

He said a single adverse vote among the four commissioners would defeat any proposals being tackled by the board.

“This is a tyranny of the minority which is unacceptable. We cannot have a single person sabotage the Comelec’s preparations for the elections just because we lack three members,” said Barzaga.