Comelec owes Smartmatic P1.8 M

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) still owes Smartmatic International P1.8 million for the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines bought for the May 13 polls.

Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said the amount is equivalent to the 10 percent retention fee from the P1.8-billion contract they had with Smartmatic when they bought 82,000 units of PCOS machines.

“We have not yet paid them in full because we are still holding 10 percent of the contract price,” he said.

He could not ascertain when, but Comelec could pay Smartmatic only when their accountability has been cleared, Brillantes said.

The retention fee serves as an assurance for the Comelec as they are still in the process of reviewing the performance of the Smartmatic machines.

Poll watchdog Kontra Daya has asked the Comelec not to pay Smartmatic because of the problems encountered during the elections.

Gani Tapang, Kontra Daya convenor, said the poll body should instead make Smartmatic accountable for the malfunctioning PCOS machines and defective compact flash cards that hampered the conduct of elections.

“We don’t think it is for taxpayers’ money to be paid Smartmatic given its dismal performance,” he said. 

“Smartmatic should even be fined by Comelec and asked to return previous payments.”

Other flaws observed during elections are the delay in the transmission of election results and the bloated results the servers produced in more than 1,000 polling precincts.