ELECTION watchdog Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E) on Thursday expressed alarm over the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Bids and Awards Committee to disqualify Smartmatic -Total Information Management and Indra Sistemas S.A. in the bidding for the P2.5 billion contract for the lease of Election Management System (EMS) and Precinct-Based Optical Mark Reader (OMR), which include the acquisition of additional 23,000 voting machines.
In a statement, C3E warned against the Comelec’s failure to identify the more compelling and solid grounds to exclude Smartmatic-TIM from the bidding.
Smartmatic was disqualified by the Comelec BAC for having submitted a bid with no indication of a price or at least a zero on several items.
But the C3E coconvenor Alain Pascua said Smartmatic-TIM should have been disqualified much earlier for other glaring violations.
“Glaring is the hairline ground for which Smartmatic was disqualified even on the face of its blatant violations and more compelling grounds of ineligibility,” Pascua said.
Pascua noted than a complaint seeking to blacklist Smartmatic from participating in any bidding process in the Comelec was filed on the ground that it lacks legal capacity to participate in the bidding, owing to its infirm documentation filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
It states in the SEC registration that the primary purpose of the Joint Venture between Smartmatic and TIM was to provide automated election services for the 2010 national elections, which essentially invalidates them from participating outside the 2010 elections.
Nicanor Elman, also of C3E, also lamented how Smartmatic managed to get past numerous issues on electoral fraud, digital lines faulty transmission and flawed documents.
“People have now begun asking whether there would even be an election in 2016 at all. And with all that is happening, we cannot fault them for thinking that way,” Elman said.