MANILA, Aug. 4 (PNA) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has issued the Notice of Award to Smartmatic-TIM Corp. for the provision of 23,000 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines worth PhP 1.72 billion to be used in the 2016 polls.
According to Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez, both parties are now talking with regards to the signing of the contract.
“We issued it (Notice of Award) last Friday. Nag-uusap na sila preparatory to the actual contract signing,” he said.
The poll official noted that the contract negotiations between the poll body and election service provider may run for about two weeks.
Meanwhile, the fate of the refurbishment contract for the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines might be known this week, as the Comelec is set to meet with stakeholders to discuss the matter.
Jimenez said the commission will be meeting with the Comelec Advisory Council (CAC) and the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) on the Automated Election System.
“The consultation with the advisory council will be on Wednesday and then after that, the en banc will meet with the JCOC on Thursday. After that, hopefully magkakaroon ng special en banc Thursday afternoon. Doon ididiscuss na nila,” he said in a press briefing.
Jimenez added, “We are seeking inputs from other stakeholders as well just to get their inputs… and all of that will be in the decision-making process of the commission.”
With this, the poll body official noted that no other bidding will be conducted for the PhP-3.13 billion project of repairing the 81,896 units of PCOS.
“Bale second round of bidding na yong nag-fail. So the next step is negotiated bid. Hanggang two public biddings lang. After that, negotiations,” Jimenez explained.
Last Saturday, the Comelec–Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) 2 declared a “failure of bidding” after the joint venture of Dermalog Identification Systems GmbH, Avante Technology, and Stone of David Technical Equipment, was found to be “ineligible.”
This was already the second “failure of bidding” for the PCOS repair project after the first public bidding failed to receive any bids from three companies that purchased Bid Documents.
The reuse of the 81,896 PCOS machines to be supplemented by the 23,000 OMR units and the use of all new OMR units by combining the 23,000 and the 70,977 OMR units are the options being eyed by the Comelec for the 2016 polls. (PNA)