POLL AUTOMATION. Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc members hold a press conference on Wednesday (Feb. 21, 2024) at the Comelec main office in Manila. The poll body on Thursday (Feb. 22) said it has awarded the contract for the 2025 poll automation project to lone bidder Miru Systems Co Ltd. (PNA photo by Ferdinand Patinio)
MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Thursday it has awarded the PHP18 billion contract for the automation project of the 2025 midterm polls to lone bidder Miru Systems Co. Ltd.
“Via a unanimous vote in its Regular Session on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, the Commission on Elections, sitting en banc, had approved the recommendation of the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) to award to the Joint Venture - Miru Systems Co. Ltd., Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies, Inc. (MIRU-ICS-STCC-CPSTI) the contract for the procurement project Lease of Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) for the 2025 National and Local Elections,” Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said in a statement.
Miru has submitted a total bid worth PHP17.98 billion, which is lower than the project's total approved budget for the contract (ABC) amounting to PHP18.82 billion.
The South Korean firm's proposal consists of 110,000 automated counting machines (ACM); 104,345 ballot boxes; 2,200 consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) server/laptop and printer; and 73,881,894 ballot papers and ballot verification.
On Wednesday, Miru made an end-to-end demonstration of its ACM, CCS and election management system (EMS), among others, before the officials and other members of the commission, representatives of the citizens' arm, stakeholders and the members of the media.
The lone bidder was declared eligible to tender its financial bid by the SBAC upon the recommendations of the Technical Working Group (TWG) during the competitive public bidding for the procurement project on Jan. 8.
On Feb. 7, the firm was declared post-qualified by the SBAC after having gone through the arduous process of post-qualification evaluation conducted by the TWG, wherein all the eligibility documents, including samples and prototypes, of the said bidder had been evaluated, validated, verified and examined.
In turn, the Special Bids and Awards Committee-Automated Elections System approved the same and declared Miru as the bidder with the single calculated and responsive bid in their Resolution No. 3 dated Feb. 13.
“With the recommendations from both the TWG and the SBAC-AES, the commission en banc decided to put forth the demonstration of the voting machines before deciding to award the contract to Miru. This is to ensure that the process will be transparent, accountable and inclusive,” Laudiangco added. (PNA)
