By Ferdinand G. Patinio
MANILA, July 19 (PNA) — The Commission on Elections-Special Bids and Awards Committee (Comelec-SBAC) 2 will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on Monday, July 20 for the refurbishment of the more than 81,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.
The conference will be held at 2 p.m. at the Comelec Session Hall at the Palacio del Gobernador Bldg. in Intramuros, Manila, to discuss Eligibility Requirements, Minimum Technical Criteria, and Financial Components of the project with prospective bidders.
Bids for the project are set to be submitted and opened on August 1 at the Bureau of Treasury Convention Hall at the Palacio del Gobernador Bldg. in Intramuros, Manila.
Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said that bidding is open to all prospective bidders and it will not be limited only to those that showed interest in the first round.
“Although categorized as second round of bidding, this is basically a new bidding. Anybody can come in and even the old ones will have to buy the bid documents to participate in the second round,” said the head of the Comelec Steering Committee for the 2016 elections.
Last week, the poll body announced the holding of a second bidding for the repair of the 81,896 PCOS units and upped the ABC to P3.13 billion.
The Comelec had said that the re-use of PCOS machines in the next presidential elections is the “best” option for the government.
“With the refurbishment, we see a big difference in the price. So we feel that the refurbishment is still the most advantageous for the government in terms of the savings, in costs,” he added.
Originally, the PCOS repair deal with an Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) of P2.07 billion but the first round was declared a “Failed Bidding” after no bids was submitted to the SBAC 2.
The re-use of the old PCOS units to be supplemented by 23,000 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines, is one of the two options being eyed by the Comelec for the 2016 polls, the other one is the lease of all new OMR units by combining the 23,000 and 70,977.
Last April, the Supreme Court (SC) junked the P268-million negotiated contract entered into by the Comelec and Smartmatic – Total Information Management (TIM) Corporation for the refurbishment of the PCOS machines citing the absence of public bidding being conducted by the poll body. (PNA)