Comelec supplier: Counting machines passed

The consortium that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) contracted for the automation counting project said yesterday its automated vote counting machines (ACM) passed the rigid performance tests conducted by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The Mega Pacific Consortium (MPC) reacted to the statement made by Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. Wednesday that the 2004 national elections will fail because of a "flawed" computer system that will be used in the May polls.

MPC won the bidding for the second phase of the three-part Comelec modernization program.

Lawyer Alfredo Lazaro Jr., MPC spokesman, said the tests conducted by the DOST Metals Industry Development Research Center on the ACM units since September showed that none of the units failed.

Lazaro added that no technical errors in operation were encountered during test runs conducted on the 288 units delivered for the second batch of tests, which were completed last week.

Technical errors were only observed in nine of the first 30 units tested due to human error. Lazaro said the error was "inadvertently caused by the ACM operator."

The flaws in these units were corrected by the time they were subjected to retesting at DOST last month, he said.

At a press conference last week, DOST Director Rolando Viloria said the DOST-Comelec test and evaluation personnel use 10 key technical requirements identified by the Technical Ad Hoc Committee to ensure that all the machines comply with 100 percent computerization bench-marking procedures.

Lazaro also outlined the Comelec’s bidding process, which led to a decision to award the counting automation project to the consortium of five information technology (IT) giants led by Metro Pacific eSolution Inc. (MPEI).

MPC was one of several IT companies that submitted bids to the Comelec after the poll body released an invitation to bid on Jan. 28 for the P1.3 billion second phase of the poll modernization project. This phase involves automated ballot counting and canvassing.

The bidding rules and regulations allowed manufacturers, suppliers and distributors to coalesce into a joint venture or consortium, Lazaro said.

These rules were based on the Request for Proposal (RFP) taken from the DOST Technical Evaluation Report drafted by the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), Comelec, a private-sector advisory council and the Technical Ad Hoc Evaluation Committee.

"Given the complexity, costs and wide scope of the undertaking, it would not qualify any single entity, domestic or foreign, from being declared eligible in joining the envisioned bidding," Lazaro said.

After the Comelec Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) convened a pre-bid conference and evaluated the bidders’ proposals, only the MPC and Total Information Management Corporation (TIMC) qualified.

With the bidders limited to MPC and TIMC, the BAC weighed the technical bids and referred them to the DOST for further evaluation. The DOST conducted its evaluation by performing tests on the ACM units provided by the qualified bidders, Lazaro said.

On April 15, the BAC reported to the Comelec en banc the results of the technical and financial bids of MPC and TIMC and recommended that the project be awarded to the MPC, as the MPC bid was considered the lowest complying bid and most advantageous to government.

The Comelec then issued Resolution No. 6074, adopting the BAC report.