By Ferdinand G. Patino
MANILA, March 27 (PNA) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has again allowed Smartmatic–Total Information Management (TIM) Corporation to bid for the additional Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines to be used in the 2016 polls.
This as the Comelec en banc on Friday reversed the decision of its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) disqualifying the Venezuela-based company from participating in the bidding for the lease of 23,000 OMR machines.
“Wherefore the Instant Protest is hereby granted. Accordingly, the Commission hereby declares that the Financial Proposal submitted by the Smartmatic-TIM during the Second Stage of the bidding for the OMR is complete and responsive,” said the eight-page decision.
With this, the Comelec directed the BAC to resume with the First Round of Bidding for the OMR contract by conducting post-qualification assessment of Smartmatic-TIM’s bid.
In the Post-Qualification Evaluation, the Comelec-BAC was tasked to verify, validate, and ascertain the legal requirements such as licenses, certificates, permits; and technical requirements like competence and experience, machines, bid security, among others, of the bidder.
The Comelec en banc also ordered the suspension of the proceedings for the Second Round of bidding for the OMR project, which was conducted after the declaration of “Failed Bidding” for the project when Smartmatic-TIM and Indra Sistemas S.A., were both disqualified by the BAC.
The ruling, which was promulgated on March 26 noted that the law must always be interpreted based on its “essence” and not on “mere semantics”.
The poll body said the bid of Smartmatic-TIM must not be ruled based only on the Overall Summary Price Proposal, which showed the “blank” items, but instead be appreciated also with regards to the Financial Proposal Breakdown.
“A review of the Overall Summary submitted by the Smartmatic-TIM for the OMR project shows that indeed there are dashes, instead of zeroes, in the required items indicated in the Overall Summary of its financial proposals. The presence of dashes in said summary, however, is not sufficient ground to disqualify the Smartmatic-TIM because aside from the Overall Summary, the Financial Proposal Breakdown should also be considered in determining whether or not a financial proposal is complete and responsive,” the poll body said.
It added that the Financial Proposal Breakdown of Smartmatic-TIM’s bid clearly indicate “Php0.00” in the costing of “Risk Management Contingency Planning”; “Change Management”; and “Quality Control and Assurance” and that it corresponds to the dashes indicated in the Overall Summary.
The poll body said there is no logic behind the Comelec-BAC requiring bidders to include both Overall Summary and Financial Proposal Breakdowns in their bids if only the Overall Summary will be appreciated.
“The BAC need not require the submission of both Overall Summary and Financial Proposal Breakdowns if it will consider only the Overall Summary in determining the responsiveness of a financial offer. Clear is the need to ascertain the bid price, not only from the aggregate sum (Overall Summary) but also from the Schedule of Prices (Financial Proposal Breakdown),” said the Comelec.
Smartmatic-TIM had proposed an amount of Php1,724,712,698.24 for the lease of the OMR machines, and another Php505,086,506.40 for the “Option to Purchase” for the project with an approved budget of Php2,503,518,000.00.
For its part, Smartmatic-TIM applauded the decision saying it shows that “reason still reigns within the poll body.”
“We are glad the Comelec and the Filipino people can finally benefit from the savings that our bid is offering. We believe that this decision is a big step towards the right direction and augurs well for every Filipino’s quest for clean, transparent, and credible elections,” said Cesar Flores, Smartmatic President for Asia-Pacific in a text message.
Last month, the Smartmatic-TIM was disqualified by the Comelec-BAC after it submitted a “non-responsive” bid that featured several items left without price offers in their Financial Proposals.
The international company filed a protest before en banc after the BAC denied its motion for reconsideration (MR) last March 7. (PNA)