Smartmatic bags deal to supply equipment for poll result transmission

 MANILA, Philippines - The Smartmatic-Total  Information Management (TIM) Corp. captured another deal for the May 2016 elections, this time to supply the Commission on Elections (Comelec) with equipment for the transmission of election results.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez yesterday announced the P507-million contract for the electronic results transmission services (ERTS) has been awarded to Smartmatic, which provided similar services in the last two elections.

Jimenez said the Comelec decided in favor of Smartmatic for providing the “lowest responsive” bid among the four companies that participated in the negotiated bidding.

“The Smartmatic P507.718,000 deal generated P50-million savings for the government because it is lower than the Comelec’s bid estimate,” Jimenez said.

“Take note that the operative word is lowest responsive bid, because the bid may be low, but it’s not responsive. In this case, Smartmatic is the lowest responsive bid among the four bidders,” he added.

Jimenez said other bidders have incomplete eligibility requirements and poor technical capability.

After two failed biddings, the Comelec opted to undertake a negotiated bidding for the providers of election results transmission services to be used in the May 2016 elections.

The ERTS is the system used in the city/municipal, provincial and national canvassing centers to send and receive transmitted results of voting.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said one of the bidders, Edgecomm Inc., offered a lower bid, but the company has no track record.

“Smartmatic has the second lowest bid, but at least it has a track record,” Bautista said.

He stressed that Smartmatic also gave assurances that it will provide the best transmission services for the 2016 elections.

According to Bautista, transmission of results is a critical area in the upcoming elections, thus the Comelec is looking at ways to enhance such services.

With the equipment that Smartmatic will provide, the Comelec hopes to perform better than in previous elections, Bautista said.

He said Smartmatic promised to provide 100 percent transmission of election results within 24 hours from the closing of voting.

Comelec Commissioner Christian Lim said one of the factors that enabled Smartmatic to bag the contract was it offered to undertake the needed site survey in areas with history of failed transmission in the last elections.