By Ferdinand G. Patinio
MANILA, Feb. 25 (PNA) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday disqualified Smartmatic – Total Information Management (TIM) Corp. and Indra Sistemas S.A. from the public auction for Optical Mark Reader (OMR) and Direct Recording Electronics (DRE) machines to be used in the 2016 national and local poll
The Comelec – Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) announced Wednesday, during the opening of the Second Stage of Public Bidding for the OMR and DRE machines, that the bids of both service providers were found as being “non-responsive”.
“In summary, the BAC has declared or has disqualified both bidders for having submitted non-responsive financial proposals,” said Comelec-BAC Chairperson Helen Flores.
She said that Smartmatic-TIM’s failed to completely fill-up the items required by the Comelec in its Terms of Reference (TOR) by leaving as “blank” the items on “Other Requirements”, “Risk Management and Contingency Planning”, “Change Management”, and “Quality Control and Quality Assurance”.
“In this regard, where a required item is provided but no price is indicated, the same shall be considered as non-responsive. But specifying a ‘zero’ in the said item would mean that it is being offered for free to the government,” the Comelec-BAC official said.
On the other hand, Flores said that Indra went beyond the approved budget for the project, which is Php 2,503,518,000.00.
The Spanish firm did not also include the “Option to Purchase” amount in their total bid proposal, which is another Php 1,182,977,632.96.
“Based on the excessive financial proposal of Indra and for being non-responsive because it exceeds the maximum cost, which is in the amount of Php 2.5 billion,” Flores said.
Both companies are participants to the bidding for the OMR machines while the Venezuela-based firm was the only eligible bidder for the DRE.
For Indra, the OMR lease contract is at Php 2,503,518,000.00, which is exactly the amount of the approved budget while Smartmatic-TIM proposed an amount of Php 1,724,712,698.24 for the lease of the OMR machines, and another Php 505,086,506.40 for the “Option to Purchase”.
For the DRE project, the lone bidder offered Php 27,121,494.40 for the contract.
The Comelec’s approved budget for project was Php 31,272,000 plus an additional Php 1,337,624.96 for the “Option to Purchase”.
Meanwhile, Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said the BAC was expected to issue a recommendation to the commission en banc for the declaration of a “Failed Bidding” so that they could hold a second round of bidding.
“It looks like that (failed bidding) is where we are headed if there will be no reversals from the BAC with respect to the motion for reconsideration (MRs) to be filed by the two bidders,” he said.
In the second round, Jimenez said that both companies and other interested firms were allowed to participate.
“In the second round of bidding, everyone is starting on the same footing,” he said. (PNA)