A joint venture led by South Korean firm Miru Systems bagged the nearly P18-billion contract for the full automation system with transparency audit count (FASTrAC) project for the May 2025 national and local elections, Commission on Elections chairman George Garcia announced Thursday.
The contract includes 110,000 automated counting machines, 104,345 ballot boxes, 73.8 million ballot papers, and the canvassing system, Garcia said.
Meanwhile, Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco reported that the bidding for the Online Voting and Counting System for overseas votinghas been declared a failure after the two bidders for it were declared ineligible.
The Comelec en banc decided to adopt the recommendation of the seven-member Special Bids and Awards Committee and the findings of the technical working group regarding the lone bidder in the FASTrAC project, the poll chief said.
“Yesterday, the joint venture of Miru et al., a South Korean firm, conducted an end-to-end technology demonstration of FASTrAC before the members of the en banc and other stakeholders at the main office in Intramuros, Manila,” he said.
“These machines were customized in accordance with the terms of reference (TOR), which the Commission came up with as early as last year. These are not the machines adjusted by the Comelec. They adjusted based on the requirements indicated in the terms of reference,” Garcia said.
In separate notices, the Comelec said the application of Indra Soluciones Technologias de la Information SLU was disqualified after it submitted a non-compliant net financial contracting capacity (NFCC).
Indra also failed to submit the credentials of its third-party certifier, the certification of the final version of its system, and was found to have an incomplete change management plan.
The company also failed to complete its submission of standards ofaudit, had a non-compliant brochure for printers for auto-volt switching, and did not submit a demo unit version of the solution being offered in a CD or USB flash drive.
During the first round of bidding in December, the Comelec declared a failure because Miru was unable to fully comply with the documentary requirements.
During the second round of bidding in January, Miru overcame such deficiencies and passed the eligibility check.
The company offered to do the election project for P17.988 billion, and the Comelec subsequently recognized it as the “single, calculated bid.”