Comelec not about to absolve Smartmatic-TIM

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is not about to absolve Smartmatic International Corp.-Total Information Management Corp (TIM) for the defective precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used in the May 2010 polls.

In an ambush interview, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said they are still holding Smartmatic-TIM “accountable for some damages” adding that the poll body has yet to give the full payment of P7.2 billion for the lease of 82,200 PCOS units.

“We are still negotiating. They are not yet fully paid. They are charging us some amount but we don’t want to pay them,” he said.

Brillantes said Smartmatic-TIM wants Comelec to pay an additional P500 million but stressed the company should be held liable for the PCOS machines that malfunctioned during the elections.

He cited the defective built-in ultraviolet ray scanners of the PCOS machines that Comelec had to buy some P30 million worth of portable scanners to check the security markings in the ballots.

He said they also removed the system that would have enabled the teachers manning the polls to encode their digital signatures in the machines because the dates printed in some election returns were wrong.

Brillantes said the Commission on Audit had so far approved the payment of only P108 million to Smartmatic-TIM and Comelec is still negotiating for the payment of another P177 million.

“Mga P200 million na lang siguro ang pag-aawayan namin. Umiiyak na nga sila, lalo na at nawala pa ang business nila sa ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao),” Brillantes said. (We just have to negotiate around P200 million. They’re crying now that they lost business with the postponement of ARMM elections).

The Comelec had planned to obtain over 4,000 PCOS machines from Smartmatic-TIM for the ARMM polls on Aug. 8 but Congress already passed a bill for its postponement until the midterm elections in 2013.