BY GERARD NAVAL

SMARTMATIC/Total Information Management Corp. of Venezuela has the edge on the poll automation project as it has the less expensive proposal than Spain’s Indra Sistemas/Strategic Alliance Holdings Inc/Hart Intercivic, the Comelec Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) said yesterday.

Ferdinand Rafanan, SBAC chair, said Smartmatic’s bid was P7,191,484,739.48, as against the Indra Systemas bid of P11,223,307,799.

The project has a funding P11.2 billion.

But Rafanan said the price of the bids is not the sole criteria in determining the lowest calculated bid.

"There has to be a balance between the bidder’s eligibility to handle the project, their technical capacity to comply with requirements of the Comelec for the automated election system and financial proposal that should not exceed the total contract amount," Rafanan, also director of the Comelec Law Department, said.

The SBAC on Saturday night opened the financial bids of Smartmatic and Indra after the consortiums of AMA Group of Companies/Election System and Software, and FF Cruz and Company/Filsystems and Gilat of Israel failed in the eligibility requirements.

Rafanan said the opening of the financial bids of Indra and Smartmatic was made "without prejudice" to the motion of reconsideration (MR) filed by the AMA group.

Rafanan added that it is only after the SBAC has ruled on the remaining MRs will they announce the lowest calculated bid that will be entitled to hold an end-to-end machine demonstration, where members of the Comelec-Technical Working Group will evaluate the poll machines using 26 system specifications.

Among the details that will be scrutinized are the proposal for the Precinct Counting Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, consolidation and canvassing, ballots, ink for printing of ballots, printer to print ballots, electronic transmission services, website for information campaign and paper-based voters’ education.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the public demonstration is tentatively set tomorrow at the Comelec head office in Intramuros, Manila.

The Comelec-SBAC had said it is looking to award the contract no later than the end of the month.

The FF Cruz and Company/Filsystems and Gilat of Israel will file a motion for reconsideration today.

Felipe Cruz Jr. of FF Cruz/Filsystems denied there was lack of documentation in the papers submitted to SBAC.

"What happened was that the lawyer representing our consortium was a new one, the first one having to leave overseas for family reasons. Since he was not too familiar with the documents, the new Gilat lawyer failed to find the ‘ballot management plan’ sought by the Comelec from among the big sheaf of papers submitted to the committee," said Cruz.

"Actually, the ballot management plan was among the documents allegedly submitted by Gilat to the SBAC in another form due to cultural interpretation," Cruz said.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the Comelec now needs to come up with a Plan B to ensure that the 2010 elections would proceed either through a full or selective automation. Remonde made the statement following threats of some losing bidders to seek a temporary restraining order that could prevent the automation process by May 2010.

"Dapat may Plan B talaga ang Comelec. Kami talaga, we have high respect for (Comelec) chairman (Jose) Melo na in the worst case scenario na kung ano ang mangyayari, they should be able to handle the 2010 elections as scheduled," he said.

Malacañang said it acknowledges the difficulties faced by Comelec in implementing the automation by next year.