Wanted: Warehouse for new voting machines

THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) has urged warehouse owners interested to rent out their facilities for the storage of more than 90,000 new voting machines to be used in 2016 to submit their proposals to the poll body.

According to the Comelec bids and awards committee (BAC), the poll agency is eyeing to lease for one year a warehouse facility for a budget of P70,181,149 via negotiated procurement method.

In its notice of conduct of negotiated procurement, Comelec-BAC said that interested parties have until Oct. 3 to submit their “best and final offer.”

Comelec Chair Andres Bautista earlier said the agency was currently looking for another warehouse apart from the one they have in Cabuyao, Laguna, which houses the old 81,896 precinct count optical scan machines.

“The Cabuyao warehouse does not have enough space and cannot accommodate the new machines,” Bautista said.

The Comelec is set to lease 93,977 optical mark reader machines from Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. for use in next year’s national and local elections.

Interested parties may submit their proposal for the provision of the warehouse facility in a sealed envelope at the Comelec-Administrative Services Department at the ground floor of the Shipping Center Building, Intramuros, Manila.

To be included in the sealed envelope are: Securities and Exchange Commission/Department of Trade and Industry certificate of registration; mayor’s permit; latest income tax returns; copy of insurance policy of the building; and valid and current fire safety inspection certificate issued by the Bureau of Fire Protection.

“Offer exceeding the approved budget for the contract shall be rejected,” said the Comelec-BAC.

Republic Act No. 9184 provides that the negotiated procurement method, wherein the procuring entity directly negotiates a contract with a technically, legally and financially capable supplier, is allowed in case of two failed public biddings.

The Comelec-BAC also began the public bidding for the supply of warehouse equipment with a total budget of P12,921,841.60.

Included in the bidding are two reach truck (forklift), two counterbalance (forklift), one generator set (500kVA), 60 hand pallet truck and 19 air-condition units.

“Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedure using a nondiscretionary ‘pass/fail’ criterion,” said the Comelec-BAC Invitation to Bid.

A complete set of bidding documents may be purchased by interested parties until Oct. 12.

The prebid conference is set on Sept. 28 at 2 p.m.

The submission of bids shall be on Oct. 12 on or before 9 a.m. while the opening of bids is on the same day at 10 a.m.