The Commission on Elections (Comelec) declared a failed bidding for its P600-million contract for the lease of 10,000 vote counting machines it will use for the 2022 National and Local Election.
This after no company participated in the opening bid for the said product last Thursday.
Comelec -Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) Chairman Allen Abaya said that even the lone bidder, Smartmatic-Total Information Management Inc. (SMMT-TIM), which purchased the bidding documents for the contract, also decided to back out from the bidding.
He noted the election service provider sent a letter to Comelec through its authorized representative, Filipinas OrdoƱo, informing the poll body of its decision not to join since it found the P600,503,500.00 approved budget insufficient for the project, insufficient.
OrdoƱo said the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic caused āacute global shortage in electronic components, which has driven up costs to unprecedented levels of 20 percent to 25 percent.
She also said the pandemic also led to a sharp rise in logistics cost, which had hit 200 percent in the last year,
āWe have determined that the budget is not sufficient to cover all of Comelecās conditions stated in the TOR (Terms of Reference),ā OrdoƱo said.
OrdoƱo said they may participate in the bidding if the budget for the contract is increased.
Following the failed bidding, Comelec said it will now review the terms of the lease contract.