UNLIKE the first round, the second public bidding held by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for its Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) project did not have an aborted ending.
The Comelec – Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) yesterday declared lone bidder, the Joint Venture of Miru Systems Co Ltd, Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies, Inc. (MIRU-ICS-STCC-CPSTI), as eligible to pursue the undertaking.
“We approve the recommendation of the Technical Working Group and the bidder, Joint Venture of Miru Systems is hereby declared eligible,” said Comelec-SBAC chairperson Allen Francis Abaya during Monday’s opening of bids in Intramuros, Manila.
Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said Miru was “able to rectify the problems they had in the first cycle of public bidding and have been able to comply this time.”
It can be recalled that Miru was declared ineligible by the SBAC during the first round of public bidding due to its lack of English translation in the supporting documents it submitted, as well as having an incomplete undertaking to forge a joint venture as required by the Comelec.
The declaration of ineligibility of Miru, which was also the lone bidder then, left the Comelec-SBAC with no choice but declare a failure of the public bidding.
On Monday, Miru was once again the lone bidder for the second round of public bidding.
Aside from Miru, five other companies purchased bidding documents for the second round of the procurement process but did not submit their bids. These are Dominion Voting Systems, Indra Philippines, AMA Group Holdings Corp, Electiotech Consultant and Management Inc., and Smartmatic – TIM 2016 Inc.
In its bid proposal, Miru Joint Venture tendered a project cost of P17,988,878,226.55.
Broken down into the project components, Miru tendered a bid price of P420,299,898.11 for the Election Management System; P15,274,403,128.10 for the automated counting machines; P198,689,440.00 for the Consolidated Canvassing System; P1,606,685,781.64 for ballot printing; and P488,799,978.70 for the acquisition of ballot boxes.
The amount is lower by P838,851,773.67 than the approved Comelec budget of P18,827,730,000.22.
With Miru passing the eligibility and financial requirements, Laudiangco said the joint venture will now undergo the “post-qualification” process, which he said may be completed between seven to 30 days.
“They will undergo the post qualification evaluation, wherein we will evaluate all the documents they have submitted. The SBAC and the TWG is obligated to verify and check if the documents submitted are all valid,” he explained.
“As to their technical proposal, we must check if they are compliant to the project’s technical requirements. As you can see, the post qualification process is more tedious,” added the official.
If they fail the post qualification process, Miru joint venture will be declared as being “post disqualified.”
On the other hand, if they pass the post qualification process, the joint venture shall be deemed as the “single calculated responsive bid.”
While the post qualification process is ongoing, the Comelec-SBAC reminded all stakeholders on the ban on any form of communication between the procuring entity and the bidders.
Violation of the said prohibition, said Laudiangco, may lead to administrative and/or criminal charges.
“Any member of the SBAC, end user, TWG, observers are prohibited from having any form of communication with the bidders. That is a standard rule that we adhere to,” said Laudiangco.
