Against recommendation of own lawyers, Comelec gives Smartmatic P1.2-billion repair contract Why is an inefficient and ineligible company getting the Commission on Elections’ P1.2-billion contract to repair 82,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines in preparation for the 2016 presidential elections? This was the question posed by the election watchdog Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E) on Sunday after the poll body extended its warrant agreement with Smartmatic. No public bidding On December 29, the Comelec en banc voted 5-2 to award the P1.2-billion repair and upgrade project to the Venezuelan reseller of the automated election system. The decision was against the recommendation of the poll bodys own legal department, which said the contract must undergo public bidding. Comelec is set to promulgate its decision this week. We are manifesting our strongest rejection of this callous and despicable act. We will use all available means to stop the Comelec from further rewarding the inefficiency of Smartmatic which is not even eligible to do business, said C3E co-convenor Engr. Hermenegildo Estrella Jr. Estrella said Smartmatic hardly passed the eligibility test when it submitted legally infirm registration documents of its joint venture with Total Information Management in 2009 where it indicated that its primary purpose was for to supply automated election system for the 2010 election. The documents regarding the joint venture defined Smarmatic-TIM’s corporate life. Another bidding In the separate ongoing bidding for 23,000 additional Optical Machine Reader (OMR) units being administered by the Comelec’s Bids and Awards Committee, the BAC’s 14-man technical working group voted 9-5 to disqualify Smartmatic for lacking tax certificate in its prequalification papers. But the BAC itself overturned the technical working group with a 3-2 vote in favor of the technology vendor. In a public statement, Smartmatic admitted that its self-limiting definition of primary purpose makes it ineligible to bid for Comelec’s requirements for the 2016 elections. However, it pointed to its secondary purposes as a way out. But whatever secondary purposes were defined in Smartmatic’s SEC submissions, the conduct or execution of these purposes were limited by the primary purpose, which is for the automation of 2010 elections, C3E argued. What Smartmatic offers C3E noted that In the December 10 end-to-end demonstration, Smartmatic presented basically the same technology owned by Dominion and used in 2010 and 2013 elections, the only changes being the size and the weight of the machines. But the system still has many of the same gaps that could gravely affect the electoral process: No improvement The quality of the scanned image presented by Smartmatic did not improve from the previous system leased and later bought by Comelec from Dominion via reseller Smartmatic. With this poor quality, inaccuracies will happen and the electoral process will be suspect. Lax security The security measure used to access the system does not assure unique log credentials for each BEI (Board of Election Inspector) member - which could allow unauthorized access to the system. Increased risk of tampering The transmission problems experienced by the Smartmatic system during the demonstration showed that they have not addressed the issues encountered in the last two elections. There is a high probability of having to touch and transport memory cards to Canvassing Centers, increasing the risk of tampering. Decryption problem Smartmatic had a problem with the decryption of the contents, a key feature that ensures the credibility of election results - which shows a lack of familiarity with this crucial process. This feature was not present in the system used by Comelec in 2010 and 2013 elections. Data importing problems Smartmatic had problems importing the data into the EMS (Election Management System) database. Again, clear lack of knowledge on these processes could result in inconsistencies of the databases used to prepare the pre-electoral data and may result in difficulties for the Comelec to resolve on time in case of last-minute changes. It took Smartmatic three hours to execute the process, with machine changes and rebooting. Interestingly, Jarltech logo popped up on the screen during the boot up process. Imagine your system crashing several times during a demonstration, when one is supposed to showcase your capabilities, or lack of it. Not integrated Smartmatic presented isolated pieces of functionalities and failed to demonstrate an end-to-end integrated system. “The public knows how fast technology evolves. But the technology Smartmatic is selling seems to be caught in a time-warp. Or maybe because Smartmatic is but a vendor and has no knowledge or the right to improve on what it is peddling,” C3E said. On exclusivity of repairs C3E also debunked Smartmatic’s claim of exclusivity in the refurbishment of the PCOS machines sold to the Comelec in 2012 and that the poll body faces possible legal action for intellectual property violation should it bid out the repairs. “False and bereft of basis,” Estrella said. Citing provisions of the Deed of Sale between Comelec and Smartmatic, it said: The control and ownership of the hardware and software shall be transferred to the buyer upon acceptance per batch of 20,000 units during the Hardware Acceptance Process. “The machines belong to Comelec. There is nothing inside the PCOS machine (basically a scanner and printer combo with capability to transmit data) that cannot be reverse-engineered, if at all needed. If indeed there are parts that are exclusive to Dominion, open the machine so it can be established which parts are not off-the-shelve -parts. That way, the public will see the quality of materials used,” Estrella said. On the assumption that Smartmatic actually owns something inside the PCOS machine, he said Comelec is not copying it nor selling it. “As the owner of the machine, opening it for repairs is not a violation. An owner of a Toyota vehicle can opt to have his car repaired in any shop or by any mechanic he prefers,” Estrella said. interaksyon/article/102350/against-recommendation-of-own-lawyers-comelec-gave-smartmatic-p1-2-billion-repair-contract
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 03:19:19 +0000
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