Sunday, November 1, 2009
Poll automation pitfall: Smartmatic subcontractoring privileges
Posted on Sunday, November 01, 2009 by The Observer
Smartmatic picks new subcontractor for PCOS machinesabs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak
Is it a violation of the poll automation contract?
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has ordered Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) to explain its contract with a Shanghai-based company after the winning consortium informed the government about a change in the firm that will produce the poll automation machines.
Smartmatic-TIM, which bagged the project to modernize the May 2010 polls, appears to have subcontracted to yet another firm the order to manufacture the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
It informed the Comelec this week that Qisdi, an electronics firm, will now be manufacturing the machines under the supervision of its subsidiary, Taiwan-based Jarl-tech.
In the bidding to automate the polls, one of the credentials presented by the Barbados-based Smartmatic was that Jarl-tech would manufacture the PCOS machines. In its website, Smartmatic said it has been working with Jarl-tech since 2004.
Other bidders, however, questioned the inclusion of a third party, Jarl-tech, to the poll automation project, but Comelec still awarded the project to Smartmatic.
There is no doubt why people and opposition leaders wary about poll automation. First, Smartmatic subcontracted the delivery of PCOS machines to a forwarding firm, To Go, owned by the Aboitiz family that is closely identified with the First Family.
What's next then?
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