MANILA, Philippines–It’s possible that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc might rule to reopen the first round of bidding for the optical mark reader (OMR) units and direct recording electronic (DRE) machines after one of the bidders protested its disqualification, a Comelec official said.
“The protest filed by Smartmatic-TIM at the commission en banc will directly affect this bidding process. Because the commission en banc may affirm or reverse our decision… If they sustain our decision, we can proceed with this second round. If they reverse it, then we can totally abandon the second round and go back to the first round,” said Helen Flores, chair of Comelec-Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).
Last Friday, election technology provider Smartmatic-TIM filed a protest before the Comelec en banc asking the reversal of its disqualification from the OMR and DRE bidding.
The protest came after the Comelec-BAC denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Smartmatic-TIM on its disqualification from the second stage of the public bidding for both the DRE and OMR projects.
Last Feb. 25, the Comelec-BAC disqualified Smartmatic-TIM after it apparently submitted a nonresponsive bid that featured several items left with “blank” price offers in their financial proposals.
The second round of bidding became necessary after the declaration of “failed bidding” for the OMR and DRE lease projects when Smartmatic-TIM and rival bidder for the OMR, Indra Sistemas S.A., were both disqualified by the Comelec-BAC.
But only one company has so far purchased the bidding documents for the new round of bidding for the lease of new voting machines to be used in the 2016 elections.
According to Flores, only Scytl Secured Electronic Voting has so far purchased the bidding documents for the lease of DRE machines, while there was no prospective bidder yet for the OMR units.
Flores explained that the low turnout could be due to the pending protest filed by Smartmatic-TIM over its disqualification from the first round of bidding for both the DRE and OMR machines.
“Yes, the reason could be that—they are waiting for the decision of the en banc (on the protest),” said Flores, but added that the bid documents may still be purchased until March 30.
She said there is enough reason for potential bidders to be skeptical in purchasing the bidding documents for the OMR and DRE projects, which is worth P75,000 and P25,000, respectively.
Sought for comment about the protest filed by the multinational company, Flores said: “We respect that very much. That is part of the process. There are bodies that are above us. Our decision is not final. We respect that,” said Flores.
She, however, disputed the claim of Smartmatic-TIM that they are very strict in the bidding process when they opted to disqualify the company for leaving “blank” some items in its proposal.
“The bidding law is highly technical. We are abiding by the strict ‘pass/fail’ criteria. If we were given the discretion, we would have considered the low price proposal of the company. But we are bound by the law, and we have to follow its non-discretionary rule,” said Flores.