Smartmatic bags deal to transmit poll results in 2016

MANILA, Philippines — The Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) bagged another contract for the May 2016 polls, this time for the provision of the election results transmission services (ERTS).

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez announced on Thursday in a press briefing that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has approved the awarding of P558-million contract for ERTS, also referred to as election results transmission solutions and management services, to Smartmatic-TIM.

“Out of the four bidders, Smartmatic submitted the lowest responsive bid,” Jimenez said, adding that the election technology provider submitted an offer of P507,718,000

“Based on the timeline submitted, it is ready to undertake the project,” he added.

Smartmatic-TIM won against three other bidders, namely Ezcom Telecommunications Service and Solutions Corp., Edgecomm Inc., and SOG Philippines Inc.

“The other bidders submitted incomplete eligibility requirements.  Some failed to properly present their technical capability. There were those that did not have plans for integration.  Others did not have a timeline.  Very incomplete so we were not really able to gauge their capability,” Jimenez said.

He noted that by tapping Smartmatic-TIM, the government would save P50,282,000 from the project.

The ERTS is the system that will be used to transmit election results from the polling precincts to the canvassing center and the poll agency’s central server.

Smartmatic’s latest contract was a product of a negotiated bidding following two failed public biddings.

Republic Act No. 9184 provides that the negotiated procurement method, wherein the Procuring Entity directly negotiates a contract with a technically, legally, and financially capable supplier, is allowed in case of two failed public biddings.

Aside from having lower bid offers, the Comelec noted that Smartmatic-TIM presented the best technical capabilities compared to its three rivals.

These included a proposal to undertake the site survey of areas with history of failed transmission within a period of three to four weeks as well as its experience of providing transmission project services for the 2010 and 2013 national and local elections.

Comelec Chair Andres Bautista, meanwhile said that the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the ERTS project would require the service provider to complete the transmission of the election results within 24 hours from the closing of voting in each of the clustered precincts.

“Right now, the TOR provides for the transmission that they are supposed to provide 100 percent transmission within 24 hours,” said Bautista.

Back in the 2013 elections, Smartmatic-TIM was only able to reach a 76 percent transmission rate when the Comelec began proclaiming the winning candidates.

“The point of our bidding now is that the bidders should be able to show that the problems encountered in previous polls will be prevented from happening again,” said Jimenez.  SFM