Comelec, Smartmatic sign deal on OMRs

The R6.3-billion contract for the lease of 70,977 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines to be used in the May 2016 elections has already been signed.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) finalized the deal and signed the contract with Smartmatic – Total Information Management (TIM) Corporation earlier this month.

Smartmatic-TIM also bagged the R1.7-billion contract for the lease of 23,000 OMR units.

Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim, head of the Steering Committee for the 2016 elections, said aside from the contract, the Notice to Proceed was also issued for the more than 70,000 OMR units.

With the Notice to Proceed already issued, the poll body expects the delivery of all the 70,977 OMR units by end of January.

“We expect full delivery by January 31,” said Lim.

The initial delivery of the 23,000 and the 70,977 units will start with five OMR machines in September and 200 units in October.

Six thousand units will be delivered in November and December for each lot while the rest will be delivered in January. The Comelec earlier decided to use all new OMR machines by combining the 23,000 and the 70,977 units for the 2016 elections due to lack of time to repair the old Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) units.

Ready to defend Meanwhile, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista expressed readiness to defend their decision before the Supreme Court amid the recent filing of another case against the lease of new OMR machines by overseas Filipino workers Guillermo Santos and Francisco Aguilar Jr.

“Just like the other cases that have been filed, we will respond or answer when we are so directed by the SC,” he said.

The petition questioned the Comelec’s decision not to utilize the old PCOS machines for the 2016 elections.