Six companies acquire bid documents for the lease of 23,000 OMR machines

Photo from The Nanhao Group

MANILA — Six companies have so far acquired bid documents for the lease of 23,000 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines to be used in the 2016 national and local polls.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec)–Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC)-1 identified the prospective bidders for the PhP2.5-billion project as Sysco Paper Corporation, Miru Systems Co., Smartmatic–Total Information Management (TIM) Corporation, Dermalog Identification Systems GmbH, Indra Sistemas S.A., and Agan Montenegro Malasaga & Co.

Other bidders can still purchase bid documents for non-refundable fee of PhP75,000 until June 29.

Meanwhile, SBAC-1 has moved the date for the submission of bids for the 23,000 OMR units to next week.

“In view of the foregoing, the SBAC-1 has resolved to move the schedule of the submission and opening of bids from June 23 to June 29, 2015,” said SBAC-1 Bid Bulletin No. 6.

With this, the submission and opening of bids for the 23,000 OMR machines will be conducted on the same day as the one for the 70,977 OMR units.

“The bidding for the 23,000 units and the 70,977 units of OMR could be pragmatically and conveniently conducted simultaneously to obviate incongruity in procedures and requirements of substantially similar procurement projects,” said the Bid Bulletin dated June 18.

The SBAC-1 said bids must be submitted on or before 9 a.m. at the Bureau of Treasury Convention Hall at the Palacio del Gobernador Bldg. in Intramuros, Manila as the opening of bids will take place at 10 a.m.

The use of the new OMR machines by combining the 23,000 and the 70,977 units is part of the two options of the Comelec for the 2016 polls. The other one is the refurbishment of the old Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to be supplemented by the 23,000 OMR machines.