By YVONNE T. CHUA
THE winner of the government’s P7.2 billion automated elections project will get close to P3 billion, or 40 percent of the contract amount, even before it delivers all the 82,200 counting machines to be used in the May 2010 elections.
Under the contract signed on July 10, the Commission on Elections will be paying Smartmatic TIM Corp. about P3 billion for a range of goods and services that include starting up the project, delivering the “development set,” customizing voter education materials and putting up a Website in the contract’s first four months. (Download automation project contract and other documents)
Smartmatic TIM Corp. will get P2.5 billion for the counting machines, called Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) units, which will be delivered in four batches: 12,000 in November, 30,000 in December, another 30,000 in January and 12,200 in February.
The Concerned Citizens Movement’s (CCM) is asking the Comelec to halt payments to Smartmatic TIM in deference to the Supreme Court which has taken note of the case.
The High Tribunal is set to hear on July 29 a petition filed by CCM led by lawyer Harry Roque and his law partners questioning the automated poll contract, but the pending case does not stop the Comelec from paying Smartmatic TIM Corp.
The CCM petition did not ask the High Court to stay the payments to Smartmatic TIM while the case is being heard.
In a press satement, however, the CCM urged the Comelec to desist from paying Smartmatic TIM “out of respect to the Supreme Court that has already taken cognizance of the matter, and to avoid a repeat of the Megapacific tragedy where the earlier attempt to automate was nullified by the Court and to date, we have not recovered even a peso of taxpayers money paid to a contract that was adjudged void ab initio.”
Before the end of this month, the Comelec is scheduled to open a 560-day irrevocable letter of credit with the Land Bank covering the entire P7.2 billion to be paid Smartmatic TIM.
The letter of credit allows for partial drawings by Smartmatic TIM when they deliver the goods and services or what the Comelec calls “critical milestones” in the contract.
Earlier, after receiving the June 10 notice of award, Smartmatic TIM posted a P360 million performance security equivalent to 5 percent of the contract amount.
Production and delivery of ballots from Jan. 7 to April 18 will cost P719 million or a tenth of the contract price.
“Critical milestones” preceding the delivery of all the machines and ballots include the project initialization, 10 percent of the contract; delivery of “development sets,” 5 percent; report on transmission and logistics, 5 percent; delivery of function system and software agreement, 5 percent; delivery of Election Management System (EMS) and Consolidation / Canvassing System (CCS), 5 percent; complete system, including customization and voter education materials and Website; and field testing, mock election, Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) systems certification, and training of trainors, 5 percent.
According to the Comelec, the development set consists of 20 PCOS machines to be used during the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) of the software solution, including the Election Management System, Consolidation/Canvassing System, and PCOS applications.
The contract gives the Comelec the option to buy Smartmatic TIM Corp.’s automated election system for an additional P2.13 billion.
