‘The same rule should apply to Smartmatic, which had been Comelec’s favorite supplier for the Automated Election System for years now despite mounting complaints about its service.’
THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) is ready to withhold payment to poll automation provider Smartmatic after some 200 vote-counting machines (VCMs) malfunctioned on election day. Comelec Commissioner George Garcia assured the public that they will review their contracts with Smartmatic to determine possible liabilities on defective VCMs before paying.
Garcia said around 200 VCMs and more than 100 secure digital (SD) cards encountered problems, affecting around 160,000 voters in a polling precinct with around 800 voters.
The commissioner is on track in reporting just how many VCMs were defective on election day, and how many SD cards malfunctioned, thereby debunking reports from GMA 7, ABS-CBN, Rappler, the Communist Party spokesman, etc. that more than 2,000 machines conked out.
In other government contracts such as infrastructure, supply of equipment, medicines and uniforms, suppliers may not receive their full payment if the service and goods delivered are lacking. The same rule should apply to Smartmatic, which had been Comelec’s favorite supplier for the Automated Election System for years now despite mounting complaints about its service.
Commissioner Garcia said it’s about time Comelec let go of the machines as these were used since the first automated elections in 2010. It is just to the credit of the Comelec and Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan that the poll body immediately acted on the issue of defective VCMs, and voting was resumed in the affected places.
It should be noted that this is not the first time the Comelec withheld payment to Smartmatic. The poll body had done it before, pending investigation on the alleged data breach issue of the company.
If Garcia is speaking for the other commissioners, this is the first Comelec to advocate the ditching of Smartmatic as its AES supplier; the first also to withhold the mic from erstwhile spox James Jimenez. It’s about time for Smartmatic to realize that it is the Comelec and not them who runs the elections.
