By Ferdinand G. Patinio
MANILA, Aug. (PNA) — The Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) 2 of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Saturday declared the second round of bidding for the refurbishment of the more than 81,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines a failure.
In the four-page SBAC 2 Resolution No. 001, it declared that the bidding was a failure after the lone bidder, the joint venture of Dermalog, Avante and Stone of David found to be ineligible.
“Premises considered, the Special Bids and Awards Committee 2 resolved, as it hereby resolves to declare the Joint Venture of Dermalog, Avante and Stone of David as ineligible and A Failure of Bidding in this Second Competitive Public Bidding for the Supply and Delivery of the Refurbishment (with Systems Upgrade) of the existing Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) Machines, its Consumables, and Ballots for the May 9, 2016 National and Local and ARMM elections,” said the resolution issued on Saturday.
According to Atty. Jubil Surmieda, SBAC 2 chairman, the joint venture had been declared ineligible after it failed to comply with the requirements in the bid documents such as technical specification, among others.
“May mga computation and technical specification na nag fail sila etc.,” he said in an interview.
But, the SBAC 2 head said that the lone bidder would have three days to file their motion for reconsideration (MR).
He noted after receiving the appeal, they would decide on it within 7 days.
A total of three companies purchased the bidding documents, the two other were Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) and Miru Systems Co., but both firms did not submit their respective bids, citing several reasons.
In a letter sent to the SBAC 2 on August 1, the service-provider in the 2010 and 2013 polls, cited time constraints among others.
“We respectfully inform the honorable committee that Smartmatic-Tim has decided not to participate in the tender for the supply and delivery of the refurbishment, systems upgrade of the existing PCOS, its consumables and ballots for May 9, 2016 elections for the second bidding….the decision not to participate involved multiple iterations of reviews, and exhaustive communication with our suppliers. Early on we have identified that the biggest hurdle for us is the implementation schedule of the commission considering the Election Day is barely nine months away,” the letter said.
It added, “We have been trying to find ways to meet the providers schedule considering such factors as the budget, and scope of work.
Unfortunately, the schedule requested by Comelec is no longer achievable due to the delays accumulated until this point in time. The need to meet such schedule is too great for us with a possibility of over committing brings with it unthinkable repercussions for our company and for the country.”
For its part, Miru systems also cited lack of time and the backing out of its local partner.
“Our client Miru systems Co. Limited regrets to inform your good office that it is constrained not to participate in the subject bidding because of lack of material time vis a vis the date of opening of bids as one of its prospective partners has recently backed out…” the letter added.
The repair and refurbishment of the old 81,896 PCOS units has an approved budget of Php 3,130,670,549.98. (PNA)