EVER since the first working day of 2015, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has been on the receiving end of all sorts of accusations of wrongdoing in relation to the preventive maintenance proposal it approved. For the most part, the brick bats being hurled had to do with some sectors’ speculative fears that the Comelec chairman had entered into a sweetheart deal, circumventing public bidding, to the disadvantage of the government.
But of all the allegations being bandied about, the most cringe-worthy one was the claim of overprice. Apparently, some quarters believed that the 300 million price tag was simply too much for something as pedestrian as conducting diagnostics on the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines used in the elections of 2010 and 2013. What made this claim objectionable was that it was being made, on the one hand, long before the actual contract was finalized; and on the other hand, by quarters that ought to have had a better grasp of the complexities involved in conducting preventive maintenance on 82,000 PCOS machines.
The contract signed earlier this week however, reveals why it is never a good idea to traffic so heavily in hypotheticals.
First of all, the contract ended up costing the Comelec less than initially thought: thirty-one million and two hundred thousand pesos less, to be more precise. After almost a month of intense negotiations, the contract price was brought down from 300 million to 268,800 million pesos. Simply dividing that amount by the number of units to be maintained—as the proponents of the overprice theory routinely did—gives you a price point lower than you might expect to spend getting your smartphone repaired.
Second, the scope of work was revealed to be much broader that the “mere diagnostics and minor repairs” that had some people wondering whether the whole undertaking would be worth it. Now, we know that the contract will actually cover, not just diagnostics but also a physical inventory count of all the PCOS machines to be maintained; the examination of every PCOS machine to determine the required refurbishment to bring them back to working condition; the performance of a full preventive maintenance program on each PCOS machine; the performance of all repairs and replacements of the defective parts; and the full replacement of irreparable PCOS machines.
Those last two inclusions bear repeating, I think. All repairs and replacements of defective parts; and full replacement of PCOS machines found to be beyond repair.
In other words, at the end of this preventive maintenance project, most of the PCOS machines will have been made just like new, while the rest are literally going to be brand new. And that is exactly the kind of reassurance we need when we remember that these machines are going to be used in more than 80,000 precincts, in an electoral exercise that will give the country its next President.
SK postponement
ANTICIPATING the impending passage into law of House Bill 5006, which was recently adopted by the Senate en toto, the Comelec had slowed down its procurement proceedings considerably. As a result, essential supplies—like ballot box padlocks and indelible ink—were put on hold, in order to minimize expenses should the law postponing the Sangguniang Kabataan elections actually be passed.
This was done with the expectation that the required legislation would be passed sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, the process has taken longer than expected. Now, with these essential supplies still un-bought, and the SK Election Period upon us, it has become clear that if the polls are held as scheduled on the 21st of February 2015, they will not be as secured as they ought to be. Without padlocks, the ballot boxes will be that much easier to force open, leaving the contents vulnerable to all sorts of skulduggery; and without indelible ink, there will be no reliable way to prevent flying voters from having a field day at the expense of the sanctity of the elections.
This has led the Comelec to invoke its authority, under law, to reschedule the elections to a date “reasonably close” to the elections not held. More specifically, the 25th of April 2015. This will make it possible for the necessary procurement procedures to be held, to ensure that the SK elections, if they are not postponed by law after all, will be free, orderly, and honest.
James Jimenez is the spokesman of the Commission on Elections.