CenPEG to SC: Stop Comelec from proceeding PCOS, OMR biddings

PCOS Machine (Photo from Yugatech)

MANILA – The Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) filed a petition to the Supreme Court (SC), asking for the halt of the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) parallel biddings for the refurbishment of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines and lease of Optical Mark Reader (OMR) units to be used in next year’s national elections.

According to CenPEG, Comelec’s parallel biddings and the formation of Special Bids and Awards Committees (SBACs) to supervise the process were unconstitutional as there was ‘not a single basis or precedence’ that existed ‘to support the conduct of simultaneous public bidding by the Comelec SBACs.’

“Parallel bidding is a failed experiment because it doomed the bidding for the refurbishment of the PCOS machines, and failed to protect the public interest by giving the public the best possible advantages thru open competition,” the group said.

Moreover, the public biddings exceeded Comelec’s capital outlay allotment of only P11.43 billion while expenditure in the biddings were expected to exceed the budget by P1 billion.

“Suffice it to stress that if permitted, the Commission will be allowed not only to undermine Congress’ spending power but more importantly, to wreak havoc to the budget, the system, as well as desecrate the Fundamental Law of the land,” the group further said, also questioning the purchase of OMR units when there were still PCOS machines to be used.

Prior the petition, the Comelec-SBAC1 announced that the Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corporation was the lowest bidder offering P6.28 billion for the P7.8-billion contract for the lease of 70,977 OMR units.

The Comelec-SBAC2, on the other hand, failed to conduct bidding as there was no bidder for the P2.07-billion contract for the refurbishment of over 80,000 PCOS machines.

Aside from CenPEG, another group of bishops, former government officials and a lawyer also filed a petition to the SC, asking for the realignment of Comelec’s capital outlay for the coming elections.

The SC has been scheduled to hold hearings on the two petitions by next week. Should the court rule in favor of the petitioners, it will then issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to Comelec.

But with the SC yet to petition a TRO, the Comelec-SBAC still continued its declaration of public biddings; this time, for election results transmission services also in the 2016 elections.

Comelec announced that interested bidders may purchase bidding documents until July 24 for a non-refundable fee of P75,000.