The joint venture between Pivot International Inc. and Power Service Inc. Joint Venture has asked the Commission on Elections to declare “failure of bidding” for the procurement of the Vote Counting Machines Refurbishment with Consumables intended for use in the May 2022 elections.
The PSI Joint Venture made the call after the Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee disqualified the Joint Venture from the bidding held on March 5, despite being declared by the SBAC Technical Working Group as the one who passed for offering the lowest calculated bid.
Apart from the lowest bid compared to the joint venture of Smartmatic USA Corporation and SMMT-TIM 2016, Inc., the PSI Joint Venture also passed the Comelec’s requirement for automated election system (AES) requirements in the May, 2022 elections.
PSI Joint Venture’s request for the Comelec-SBAC to declare a failure of bidding as it reiterate its plea for the Comelec leadership to give due course to their administrative complaint against the end user, chairman and members of the SBAC and TWG of the poll body for the arising from the alleged irregularity involving the second bidding of the VCMs Refurbishment with Consumables.
In its manifestation and verified complaint, the PSI Joint Venture urged the Comelec to declare a failure of bidding and investigate its “administrative complaint for grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service” against Jeannie Flororita (end user), Allen Francis Abaya (SBAC chairman) , John Rex Laudiangco (SBAC vice-chairman), SBAC members Jovencio Balinguit, Divina Blas Perez and Abigail Claire Carbero Llacuna for their alleged violation of Section 7 of Republic Act 8436 as amended by RA 9369 or the law regarding AES that began on May 11, 1998 until subsequent elections.
Although TWG members were included in the case, their names were not revealed.
PSI Joint Venture stressed in its complaint that it wanted to stop corruption and irregularities in the Comelec’s bidding system, thus, it filed a complaint against with some Comelec officials who handled the bidding.
Records showed that SBAC-AES and TWG of the Comelec declared PSI Joint Venture as the winning bid for tendering the lowest competitive bid against Smartmatic-led joint venture.
However, PSI Joint Venture was surprised when the Comelec awarded the contract to joint venture Smartmatic USA Corporation and SMMT – TIM 2106, Inc., when based on the record of the Comelec’s SBAC -AES, its bid was much higher than that of the PSI Joint Venture.
According to PSI Joint Venture, it holds the evidence showing and proving that Flororita, Abaya, Laudiangco, Balinguit, Blas Perez and Carbero Llacuna were directly involved in the procurement planning and bidding of the vote counting machines (VCMs. “ ) Refurbishment with Consumables – 2nd bidding SBAC Ref. No. 012020VCRM ”.
“They have acted with manifest partiality evident bad faith or gross inexcusable in the discharge of the duties as end user/implementing units and members of the SBAC,” the complainant said.
They are “guilty of giving a private party with unwarranted benefits, advantage, or preference,” the PSI Joint Venture lamented.
The PSI Joint Venture was confident that the VCM bidding would be clean and fraud-free, so they participated in it.