MANILA, August 14 (PNA) — A Commission on Elections (Comelec) official admitted that she is not happy with her decision to approve the lease of over 70,000 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines to be used in the May 2016 polls.
With this, Commissioner Rowena Guanzon asked for the understanding of the public.
“It is in this context that I pray that the people will understand our difficult predicament. It is with great sadness that I vote for the award of the 70,977 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines under a contract of Lease with Option to Purchase to the Joint Venture of Smartmatic Total Information Management (TIM) Corp., Total Information Management Corp., Smartmatic International Holding B.V., and Jartech International Corp. for the amount of Php6,286,382,682.72,” she said in her eight-page separate concurring opinion.
At the same time, the poll body official said that the service-provider in the 2010 and 2013 polls had taken advantage of the time constraint the poll body was confronted with.
“Their refusal to participate in the bidding for the refurbishment of the existing PCOS machines, in my mind, pushing the Commission to the edge so that it is left with no choice but to award to Smartmatic JV the Lease with Option to Purchase of the 70,977 OMR units, which is bid out for Php6,286,382,682.72 and which would not have been preferred over the less costly refurbishment of the existing PCOS machines,” Guanzon said.
She opined that if only they are not pressed for time, the refurbishment project in the amount of Php 3.1 billion is the best option.
“If only there is enough time for the Commission, it is my opinion that the refurbishment of the existing PCOS machines is the most advantageous course to take. However, the urgency to be able to move forward with the preparations for the 2016 elections cannot be overemphasized,” Guanzon added.
Aside from the more than 70,000 new machines, Smartmatic also got the project for the lease of 23,000 OMR units, which was supposed to supplement the 81, 896 old PCOS units under the refurbishment project.
On Thursday, the Comelec approved the lease of the 93,000 machines, combining the new OMR machines amounting to Php10.1 billion, to be used in the forthcoming polls. (PNA)