By Ferdinand G. Patinio
MANILA, July 30 (PNA) — The Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) 1 of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has recommended to the Commission en banc the issuance of a Notice of Award to Smartmatic – Total Information Management (TIM) Corp. for the provision of the 70,977 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines.
Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said SBAC 1 has already issued a resolution for the issuance of the notice for the Php 7.87-billion project.
“The SBAC 1 has submitted to the commission en banc its resolution recommending the issuance of a Notice of Award of lease with option to purchase of 70,977 OMR to Smartmatic-TIM,” he said in a press briefing on Thursday.
The recommendation was issued after the Venezuela-based firm was declared as having the Lowest Calculated Bid for the 70,977 OMR machines for tendering a bid of Php 6,286,382,682.72 last June 30.
But, Bautista said Comelec en banc had yet acted on the recommendation of the SBAC 1 as it wanted to know the results of the separate bidding for the refurbishment of the 81,896 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.
“We are still not going to make any actions in this regard because we are awaiting the results of the bidding for the refurbishment, which is slated on Aug. 1,” the poll body added.
SBAC 2 is set to open on Saturday the bids for the repair and refurbishment of the old PCOS units, which has an approved budget of Php 3.13 billion.
Smartmatic-TIM, Miru Systems Co., and Dermalog Identification Systems GmbH have already bought the bidding documents.
Meanwhile, the poll body said on Wednesday that it was ready to issue a Notice of Award to Smartmatic-TIM for the provision of 23,000 OMR machines for Php 1.72 billion after the two Motions for Reconsideration (MRs) filed by Indra Sistemas S.A. and Miru Systems Co. against the bid of Smartmatic-TIM were denied.
“The en banc has already issued a resolution authorizing me to issue the Notice of Award to Smartmatic. The resolution is still being circulated (for signature),” Bautista added.
Once the Notice of Award is issued for the 23,000 OMR machines, the Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM is already set to hold contract negotiations for the project.
The poll body is eyeing two options for the 2016 polls these are: the re-use of the 81,896 PCOS machines to be supplemented by the 23,000 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) and the use of all new OMR units by combining the 23,000 and the 70,977 OMR units.
Earlier, the Comelec said the re-use of the PCOS machines was the most cost effective option. (PNA)