MANILA - Officials of the National Computer Center (NCC) and automation bid winner Smartmatic flatly denied on Wednesday the allegation by a UP law professor that a Smartmatic executive is a consultant of the NCC.

In a statement, Smartmatic sales director Cesar Flores described as "irresponsible” UP law professor Harry Roque’s claim that Smartmatic’s Edgar Zorilla is a consultant of the NCC, which is a member of the technical evaluation group that advises the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on poll automation matters.

Roque said the set-up between Zorilla and NCC is clearly a case of conflict of interest undermining the automation bidding process that Smartmatic, with local partner Total Information Management (TIM), bagged.

Roque leads a group of petitioners who have asked the Supreme Court to nullify the P7 billion automation project between Comelec and the consortium of Smartmatic and TIM.

But Flores said “none of (Smartmatic) officials and employees have any working relationship with the NCC,” and that Roque’s accusation “is totally untrue and baseless.”

Zorilla, who is an adviser to the chief executive officer of Smartmatic, “has no working relationship whatsoever with the NCC,” Flores stressed.

Roque said he based his observation on the NCC website, which lists Zorilla under the Consultants/IT professional category. See: http://www.ncc.gov.ph/default.php?a1=2&a2=5&a3=2&a4=WXYZ&a5=720 

Roque got it wrong

But in a separate interview, NCC director general Timoteo Diaz de Rivera said Roque got it all wrong.

Diaz de Rivera said Roque was referring to Zorilla being included in a directory of IT professionals which the NCC listed for the benefit of government agencies looking for experts to tap.

“It is just a listing. He jumped to conclusions. He committed a mistake,” Diaz de Rivera said.

Diaz de Rivera said the NCC website has not been updated for several years now because of staff limitations.

If Zorilla’s name is on the website, “it does not in any way indicate a contractual relationship between NCC and Smartmatic,” he added. The NCC website does not indicate any current consultancy job for Zorilla with any government agency.

Diaz de Rivera also refuted Roque’s claim that the NCC memorandum that was filed with the Supreme Court was a “biased” and a “hack job.”

Roque, in a memorandum Tuesday to the High Tribunal, asked the justices to reject Diaz de Rivera’s memorandum on the automation case, saying the ties that bind Smartmatic and NCC have made Diaz de Rivera’s memo suspect. Roque also said the NCC memorandum was unsolicited.

The NCC official said the memorandum was actually his presentation during the oral argument, which he was not able to introduce to the Court due to lack of time.

Friends of the court

During the oral argument, the Court invited the NCC, along with the UP Computer Center and the Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines (ITFP), as amicus curiae, or friends of the Court, to further shed light on the issue.

Diaz de Rivera said only ITFP was able to make a presentation in the oral argument that lasted till almost midnight. “The memorandum was in lieu of the oral argument,” Diaz de Rivera said.

Smartmatic’s Flores warned Roque that further attempts “to spread disinformation” will be dealt with legally. “ In future, Smartmatic will have to resort to legal means in order to respond to some of his more unethical acts,” he said.

Smartmatic/TIM had bagged the automation contract with a bid of P7 billion.  The SC is expected to resolve the petition filed by Roque’s group in early September.