THE Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday to stop the P268.8 million contract between the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and its technology provider Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) for the repair and refurbishing of 82,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines ahead of the 2016 elections.
Voting 12-2, the justices granted the plea of petitioners Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and poll watchdog Automated Elections System (AES) Watch led by Auxiliary Bishop of Manila Broderick Pabillo and former Comelec commissioner Augusto Lagman for a TRO to stop the government from carrying out the contract signed on Jan. 30.
Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco dissented from the majority, taking a position that the issues raised in the consolidated petitions should be heard first on oral argument before issuing a TRO.
The Comelec said the TRO could set back its preparations for the national and local elections next year.
In a separate statements, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez and Smartmatic representative Cesar Flores called on the Supreme Court to quickly resolve the case to avoid any delays on the preparations for 2016.
In their separate petitions, The IBP and AES Watch said Comelec Resolution No. 9922 awarding the contract to Smartmatic should be declared null and void for violating the Government Procurement Reform Act.
Because refurbishing and repair fall under the definition of the term “procurement” under the law, it was illegal for the Comelec to resort to direct contracting, the IBP said.
AES Watch, on the other hand, said the Comelec resolution was tailor-fit to suit Smartmatic, which it said enjoyed “undue accommodation” from the poll body.
If the contract pushes through, AES Watch said, this would wreak havoc on the government’s policy of public and competitive bidding and result in a waste of public funds.
In approving the Smartmatic contract, the Comelec argued that there was little time left between now and the 2016 elections.
It also said it was “too great a risk” to entrust the repair and refurbishing of the PCOS mahines to a third party other than Smartmatic, given the highly technical nature of the job.
But the IBP said the lack of time was not grounds for dispensing with the conduct of public bidding under the law.
The election watchdog Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E) wants Smartmatic to be blacklisted for violations of the country’s election laws, including misrepresenting itself as the maker of the PCOS machines. – With Sara Susanne D. Fabunan