Only one of the previous seven consortia has been declared by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) special committee on Monday as a qualified bidder for the automation contract for the 2010 elections after hurdling the financial evaluation portion.

The Special Bids and Awards Committee of the Comelec declared the consortium of Smartmatic International and Total Information Management Corporation consortium as a complying bidder with a bid of P7,191,484,739. It cited the consortium’s submissions as “all deliverables are complied with accordingly.”

SBAC however did not declare Smartmatic as the lowest bidder because three more bidders, have filed respective motions for reconsideration. The three consortia were identified as AMA Group Holdings Corp. and Election Systems and Software Int’l Inc.; Gilat Satellite Network Ltd. with F.F. Cruz and Co., Inc. and Filipinas (Prefab Building) Systems Inc. and Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. with Universal Storefront Services Corporation and USSC-Sequoia Voting Solutions Inc.

The motions for reconsideration, Comelec said, will be dealt with within the week.

Smartmatic’s bid was significantly lower than the estimated P11.2 billion poll automation contract.

Earlier, Indra Sistemas/ Strategic Alliance Holdings Inc./ Hart Intercivic consortium was disqualified due to non-compliance in the quantity of its deliverables from the Comelec requirement. The bids of both Smartmatic and Indra Sistemas consortia on Saturday were found by SBAC to have met its requirements in the technical evaluation.

Smartmatic meanwhile is not assured of bagging the contract as it will set up its counting machines Tuesday at the Comelec office for a 26-criteria testing.

“There will be a test of 26 criteria before awarding the contract… After awarding five more tests on different periods will be done and skeptics to the automation will be invited," said lawyer Ferdinand Rafanan, Comelec Law Department chief and who is also SBAC chairman.

Another consortia, Gilat Satellite Network Ltd. with F.F. Cruz and Co., Inc. and Filipinas (Prefab Building) Systems Inc. and whose bid was earlier found also to be legally eligible, was disqualified after the technical evaluation on Saturday. The committee cited that it failed to meet the needed technical requirements.

Gilat Satellite Network would reportedly file an appeal.

Awarding delayed

Comelec officials have admitted that the process of awarding the poll automation contract is already delayed.

“Delayed na kami seven days. Pero umaasa tayo na before the end of this month mare-recover natin iyan. We will be back on track with the original timeline by June,” said Rafanan last Saturday.

AMA Group had wanted to be included in the deliberations on the technical requirements Saturday. The SBAC denied their request however as it said they would still have to wait for seven days on their motion for reconsideration after they were earlier found ineligible.

“No derailment”

The COMELEC legal chief had previously clarified that losing bidders would not be able to derail the 2010 automated elections by securing a temporary restraining order in its implementation.

“The bidders signed a waiver giving-up their right to file a petition for injunction or to seek a temporary restraining order in the bidding process or in the implementation of the automated elections system,” Rafanan said in statement Friday.

“The waiver is part of the COMELEC’s requirements because we don’t want anything to get in the way of next year’s automated elections. Time is of the essence,” said Rafanan. With a report from Ron Gagalac, ABS-CBN News