Poll body still owes Smartmatic P1 B

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) still owes technology provider Smartmatic some P1 billion.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the poll body is yet to fully pay Smartmatic for supplying vote counting machines (VCMs) used in the last May elections.

The Comelec leased 93,000 optical mark reader machines from Smartmatic amounting to P7 billion.

Bautista said the Comelec is yet to release the full payment more than five months after the elections due to certain unfulfilled requirements.

“They (Smartmatic) still need to submit certain documents and other requirements as well,” Bautista told reporters during the round table discussion on the automated elections held Friday at De La Salle University.

Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon also reported earlier that the poll body will look into possible contract violations after Smartmatic changed the programming script and the hash code of the Transparency Server last May.

Despite the controversy, a fact-finding report previously recommended to the Comelec to fulfill their contract obligation to Smartmatic.

Bautista said the Commission would still discuss and take their final action on the recommendation of the fact-finding committee in their next full session.

He said the Comelec is also yet to decide whether to purchase the VCMs they leased for use in the May 2019 midterm polls.

“That’s also the reason why we want to have early consultations with different stakeholders as to what is the right system that we should use in 2019,” Bautista said.

He added there are also other options the Comelec is studying for the 2019 elections.