Two Companies Purchase Bidding Documents for the Lease of 23,000 OMR Machines –Comelec

Two companies have purchased bidding documents for the lease of 23,000 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines to be used in the 2016 polls, according to the Commission on Elections.

Comelec–Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) 1 Chairperson Thaddeus Hernan identified the prospective bidders as Sysco Paper Corp. and Miru Systems Co. Ltd.

On Thursday, the poll body started the second round of bidding for the lease of the OMR machines amounting to PhP2.5 billion.

The Submission and Opening of Bids has been set on June 23.

A new round of bidding is being conducted after theComelec–Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) last May declared the first round a failure when it disqualified Smartmatic-TIM during the post-qualification evaluation stage after it failed to submit valid Articles of Incorporation as well as the failure of the demo unit to meet the requirements of the project.

As expected, the Venezuela-based firm did not purchase the bidding documents for the second round of bidding since it has a pending protest before the commission en banc on the rirst round of bidding.

Hernan noted that the protest filed by the election service-provider in the 2010 and 2013 polls remains undecided.

“There remains the protest filed at the Comelec en banc concerning the first round of bidding for these voting machines,” he said.

The poll body official explained if the Comelec en banc issues a favorable ruling to the protest, he is not discounting the possibility that the second round will be cancelled.

“If in the event na maging favorable sa nag-protest, at ma-reverse ang disqualification, magiging moot na ito,” Hernan added.

But he is convinced that the pending protest will not discourage bidders for the second round.

“I don’t think so because this is a totally new bidding procedure. And just like in any business, these projects come with risks and the companies are aware of this,” Hernan said.

At the same time, Hernan is confident that they are going to meet the deadline to give its recommendation next month.

“We can come up with our evaluation and recommendation by the middle of July. Dere-derecho naman ito,” he added. (PNA) SCS/FGP/RSM