Comelec sets 2nd PCOS bidding

Negotiated contract set if bid fails again; 2016 polls to cost 32.4 B

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will hold a second round of bidding for the 3.13billion refurbishment of the old Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, which will be open to all prospective bidders.

“Although categorized as a 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,” Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said.

The Comelec will meet with prospective bidders in a pre-bid conference to be held at 2 p.m. today at the Comelec Session Hall at the Palacio del Gobernador Building in Intramuros, Manila, to discuss eligibility requirements, minimum technical criteria, and financial components of the project.

The Special Bids and Awards Committee 2 said bids for the project are to be submitted and opened on August 1 at the Bureau of Treasury Convention Hall at the Palacio del Gobernador.

For the recent first round of bidding for the PCOS repair project, three bidders purchased the

bid documents — Smartmatic-TIM Corporation, Indra Sistemas SA, and Vertex Business Applications, Inc. — but none submitted a bid. Thus, a failure of bidding was declared and a second bidding will be held.

The Comelec said it is not ruling out the possibility of resorting to negotiated contract if the second round of bidding for the PCOS refurbishment project again fails.

“That’s one of the possibilities we are also looking at...if it fails, we can already go into direct contracting,” Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said. “We also have to take the time constraints into account.”

He said Section 53 of the Government Procurement Act provides that the “procuring entity may directly negotiate for a contract with a technically, legally, and financially capable supplier” after having two failed public biddings.

The re-use of the over 80,000 old PCOS units to be supplemented by 23,000 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines to be acquired is one of the options now being considered by the Comelec for the 2016 elections. Another option is the lease of 70,999 OMR units to be combined with 23,000 new OMR units.

32.4 B for 2016 polls The Aquino government will be spending 32.4 billion for the May, 2016, general polls, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance said yesterday.

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero said once Congress gives in to the Malacañang’s proposed 15.6-billion budget for the Commission on Election (Comelec) for 2016, it will raise to 32.4 billion the price tag of the general elections, which is much higher than the subsidy allocation for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT).

He said the Comelec already has a 16.8-billion election budget, from which the Comelec will use 12.6 billion for “preparatory activities” for the 2016 elections.

“So if you add this year’s expenditures of 16.8 billion and next year’s proposed budget of 15.6 billion, you’re looking at a cost of almost 35 billion for just one election alone,” Escudero said. “Kung ganun kalaki, mas mahal pa ang halalan kaysa sa subsidy natin sa MRT. We’re spending more to elect 18,100 people every three years than transporting half a million people every day,” he lamented.

Escudero said he has been informed that the Comelec requested 20.3 billion “but this was pared down by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to 15.6 billion.”

He said the proposed budget allocations will be presented along with the National Budget which President Aquino will submit to Congress on the day he delivers his State-of-the-Nation Address on July 27.

“The conduct of elections in the country has always been a costly proposition. They always span two fiscal years. So you allocate money a year before and on the year of the elections itself,” he said.

The total cost of the 2013 elections was about 24 billion. The one for 2016 appears to cost 8 billion more,” Escudero said.

There are now about 56.2 million qualified voters for the 2016 elections, which is 4 percent higher than the 54 million as of September last year, he said. (With a report from Charissa M. Luci)