THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said it is eyeing to officially award the Secure Electronic Transmission Services (SETS) project to the joint venture of Ione Resources, Inc. and Ardent Networks, Inc. on Thursday and start contract negotiations later this week.
The Comelec en banc approved last Monday the recommendation of the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) to award the SETS project to the Ione-Ardent JV, which passed all legal, financial, and technical requirements while tendering a bid of P1,426,000,348.
The SETS will be used to transmit election results using telecommunication networks. The project shall include the provision of data centers and connectivity requirements for the Automated Election System (AES) servers.
In a virtual interview, Elections chairman George Garcia said: “By Thursday, we can already sign and issue the Notice of Award.”
Garcia said contract negotiations with the Ione-Ardent JV can start as soon as late this week once the Notice of Award has been issued.
He added that the poll body is hoping that the negotiations with the firm will be smooth and fast, similar to their experience during their contract discussions for the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit and Count (FASTrAC) project with the joint venture of Miru Systems Co Ltd, Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies, Inc. (MIRU-ICS-STCC-CPSTI).
“In the event that we proceed with our contract negotiations, we hope it will not take long,” said Garcia.
“We hope to have a similar kind of negotiations like with Miru, which had no objections, even with the periods and the commas,” he also said.
Once the contract is signed, Garcia said he would issue a similar reminder to the Ione-Ardent JV as the one he gave to the Miru group.
“It is their company’s name and integrity at stake here… They should be able to prove themselves in this project so that they can still participate in the future, not just with the Comelec but with other government agencies, and even in other countries,” said Garcia.
