MANILA - The Supreme Court sought for more information about the alleged shady past of the foreign systems supplier that bagged the contract to automate the Philippines’ synchronized elections in 2010.

Senior justice Leonardo Quisumbing ordered Assistant Solicitor General Thomas Laragan to “submit factual memo” on the track record and history of Smartmatic. The Barbados-based company will provide the machines and technology for the first automated elections on May 10.

The magistrate’s instructions came a day after an oral argument on the petition to prevent the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from implementing the P7.2 billion poll automation project. It was revealed on Wednesday that the automated system is not fool-proof from electronic wholesale cheating.

On Thursday, Quisumbing wanted to get more information about reports that Smartmatic had ties with the Venezuelan government.

Track record

Quisumbing asked Laragan several times on whether the poll automation project that Smartmatic bagged in Venezuela was successfully implemented. Vague with his replies, Laragan was scoffed at by the magistrate for “missing the point.”

Laragan presented to the Court a certification from Venezuela’s Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) indicating that it previously entered into a project with Smartmatic. The US$ 141,356,604.54-worth poll project took place from Jun 2008 to Feb. 2009.

The certification from CNE, which was required by the Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee as part of the eligibility requirement for the bidding, was Smartmatic’s proof that it had undertaken a similar project.

That project, however, was the subject of a report published by Miami Herald.

The US-based publication alleged that Smartmatic is partly owned by the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez’s hand

The report found that Bitza, which partnered with Smartmatic to obtain the contract for the 2004 referendum against Chavez, was actually owned by the Venezuelan government.

It found out that 28% of Bitza’s shares belonged to the Venezuelan government.

In that referendum, Smartmatic was awarded the contract for the machines while Bitza for the software. Chavez won the referendum, reportedly bucking predictions of exit polls.

In 2006, the US Treasury investigated Smartmatic, which was founded only in 2000, on its alleged ties to Chavez. The probe was prompted after the firm acquired Sequoia Voting System, one of the leading elections providers in the US.

The US State Department also conducted a parallel probe on Smartmatic on reports that it had evaded taxes and resorted to bribes to corner the referendum project in Venezuela.

Smartmatic has denied the allegations, but pressure from the twin probes prompted it to sell out Sequoia.