SC asked to stop Comelec from awarding OMR deal
Advocates of transparent and credible elections have asked the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from awarding the lease contract with option to purchase 23,000 Optical Mark Reader machines to be used in the May 2016 national and local elections.
In a 52-page petition, former Comelec Commissioner Augusto “Gus’ Lagman, former Philippine Computer Society president Leo Querubin and election advocate Maria Corazon Akol urged the high court to issue a temporary restraining order and a writ of preliminary injunction against the implementation of the June 29, 2015 decision of the Comelec.
The poll body’s decision granted the protest and declared in the process that the joint venture of Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) and Jarltech International Corporation has the lowest calculated responsive bid in connection with the public bidding for the 23,000 OMR machines.
Petitioners said it is necessary to stop the poll body from implementing its decision due to several violations committed by Smartmatic-TIM.
They said Smartmatic-TIM “is guilty of misrepresentation for claiming that it complies with the equity requirements under Philippine law when the truth is it is 100 percent foreign-owned.”
Likewise, the petitioners said among the laws violated by the respondents are Batas Pambansa 68, or the Corporation Code, and Republic Act 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act.
“They also breached the Constitution’s equity restriction,” the petition said, adding that with these, the joint venture “cannot lawfully engage in business in the Philippines and the bidding for the 23,000 new units of OMR.
They added that Smartmatic-TIM’s article of incorporation stated that its commitments under the Request for Proposal and Notice of Award are for the automation of the 2010 national and local election.
Last Monday, the Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) issued a resolution recommending the issuance of the notice of award in favor of Smartmatic–TIM Corporation for the provision of 23,000 OMR.
Smartmatic-TIM was earlier declared as having the lowest calculated responsive bid for the lease with option to purchase of the OMR.
The SBAC1’s recommendation was made after Smartmatic-TIM passed the post-qualification evaluation where all the documents and statements submitted were verified and validated.
Smartmatic-TIM offered P1.72 billion or P780 million lower than the approved budget of P2.5 billion for the project.
As soon as the “Notice of Award” is issued, the Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM can already proceed to the discussions of the contract details. AU
