WE CANNOT HAVE CLEAN ELECTIONS IN 2016 WITH SMARTMATIC-TIM Group formed to purge Smartmatic from AES bid Written by Pat C. Santos Monday, 10 November 2014 Saying “Let history not repeat itself” in putting at risk the credibility of the 2016 elections, multisectoral associations banded in an effort to convince the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ban Smartmatic-TIM in participating in the new bidding for the procurement of additional precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for the 2016 automated elections system (AES). Kaakbay Citizens’ Development Initiatives (KCDI) information technology (IT) expert Jun Estrella questioned the Comelec for refusing to blacklist Smartmatic despite several violations committed by the voting system provider in past elections. “There are sufficient grounds to disqualify and blacklist Smartmatic from participating in the forthcoming bidding for 2016 election requirements,” Estrella, who once testified in the Senate investigation on the results of the 2004 presidential elections where Gloria Arroyo snatched the presidency from then opposition standard bearer Fernando Poe Jr. Estrella cited the recent statement of Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. that Smartmatic was free to participate in the auction for the procurement of an additional 40,000 AES machines for the 2016 elections to augment the 82,000 second-hand PCOS units the election body bought from the same company, which experts suspected were prone to manipulation. The need for the acquisition of new AES machines is spelled out under Comelec Minute Resolution 14-0628, the group said. Estrella recounted how Smartmatic had concealed the true ownership of the automated system when it promised to divulge the source code, or the human readable instructions that shows how the voting system works. Smartmatic failed to present the code and was later on found that they have a dispute with the software provider of the AES system Dominion Co. Estrella went on to say that Smartmatic should have been ineligible in taking part in the previous Comelec biddings for the AES project because the company was not ISO 9001 certified, as required by the special bids and awards committee (SBAC) and RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act. The SBAC found that the ISO certification submitted by Smartmatic in bidding for the 2010 AES project belonged to a Taiwan-based firm, Jarltech International, he said. Estrella said Smartmatic also failed to abide by the “subcontracting” rules spelled out by the SBAC in accordance with the rules of the General Procurement and Policy Board (GPPB). The GPPB manual for the Procurement of Goods and Services stated that “all subcontracting arrangements must be disclosed at the time of the bidding.” It also prohibited subcontracting “of more than 20 percent of the total project costs.” Surprisingly, neither the SBAC nor the GPPB did anything when Smartmatic was caught lying, Estrella added. Estrella said Smartmatic is also not a Filipino company and its tie up with local company TIM which was formerly into a furniture business did not comply with the 60-40 ownership requirement since TIM had to open a new company called 1920 Co. where it is a 40 percent partner but later on its shares were also bought by Smartmatic that made it a 64 percent owner of the consortium that constituted a violation of the Comelec qualification rules. Members of the group, aside from Estrella, were the Kaakbay citizen development initiative, National Labor Union president Dave Diwa, George Rabusa and Mel Magdamo who are members of the Association of whistleblowers of the Philippines, Anti-trapo Association of the Philippines president Leon Peralta, Philippine Association of Free Labor Union president Terry Tuazon, Center for Peoples Empowerment in Governance (Cenpeg) senior fellow Dr. Pablo Manalastas, and Kaakbay Citizen Development Initiative member Alain Pascua. The Comelec-BAC had said prospective bidders for the 2016 automated election system (AES) including Smartmatic will be treated equally. “As far as any services and goods that we have been mandated to procure are concerned, you can be assured that this committee will be fair to all prospective bidders,” said Comelec BAC chairman Helen Flores. She said that the specifications they indicated in the Terms of Reference (TORs) of the project will not favor any company. The statement was issued amid persistent criticisms that Smartmatic, the service provider in the 2010 and 2013 elections, may have an advantage in cornering the project. The poll body is also looking to acquire additional Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines, which is similar with Smartmatic’s Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) units that were used in the two previous elections. Meanwhile, Smartmatic Philippines president César Flores said they are interested to bid for other portions of the AES system. “We are world leader in the provision of both types of voting machines, the OMR and the DRE. None of our competitors have manufactured and produced more electronic voting machines than Smartmatic,” he said. But the Smartmatic official said they have not reached a final decision in joining the public bidding. “We have bought the bid documents and are currently studying the requirements of Comelec. Once we have understood the requirements, we will decide on our participation,” Flores said. Aside from Smartmatic, the other companies that bought the OMR bidding documents are Indra Sistemas; E-Konek Pilipinas Inc; Election Systems and Software; and Miru Systems Co. Ltd. The prospective bidders for the DRE are Smartmatic; Indra Sistemas; and E-Konek Pilipinas Inc. “We invite them to keep filing those cases. The Supreme Court has in two occasions ruled with finality that the contracts and the bids that Smartmatic has won were fair, legal and advantageous to the country,” Cesar Flores, Smartmatic Philippines president, said in a statement. Flores said that the numerous auditing of the poll results coming from the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines had been proven accurate. “In the two last national automated elections, the results have been audited and recounted several times, and in every time the system has been proven to be accurate. Also, the system has provided enough audit features that allow anybody to check on the accuracy of the vote,” Flores said. He said that the calls to exclude them from the public bidding were from their critics as well as possible rivals for the project. “It is interesting to see that, as soon as a bid is released, all these groups start to call for our disqualification. I don’t think it is a coincidence, but rather the coming together of the groups that have always opposed the automation of elections in the Philippines,” the Smartmatic official said. “Again, it’s no coincidence that now, five and a half years after that bid, they come up with this far-fetched accusations to try to prevent us from offering our services,” he also said. Several technology experts were allegedly planning to stop Smartmatic from joining the bidding.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 23:07:10 +0000