By Marie Surbano (The Daily Tribune)
Link: http://www.tribune.net.ph/
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has spent more than P10 billion of the electoral body’s P16.5-billion budget for the country’s first ever computerized elections, the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) yesterday revealed.
Based on the data of Namfrel’s Bantay ng Bayan research, the poll body has spent 62 percent or around P10.241 billion of the total budget, including the P7.2-billion lease of the 82,200 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for the May 10 electoral exercises.
Among the other spendings and acquisitions of the Comelec include P243 million for the 77,000 ballot boxes (P3,155 per box) awarded to Smartmatic International Corp.; P28 million for the 80,000 units of handheld portable UV lamps awarded to OTC Paper Corp.; P75.8 million for the purchase of 720,000 bottles of indelible ink (P105 per bottle) to Texas Resources Corp.; P499.1 million for the tracking and delivery of official ballots to Smartmatic; P519 million procurement of ballot box transportation with PCOS machines nationwide; P1.5 billion for the cleansing of computerized voters’ list to Unison Join Venture; P2.1 million for the nine units of copying machines (P234,000 per unit) to Copylandia Office Systems Corp.; and
P172.4 million for the Storage and Working Area Logistics (leased racking system, pallets and lifters to Noah’s Paper Mills Inc.).
The former citizens’ arm of the poll body also urged the commission to be transparent and fully disclose the funds it has used to finance the automated May polls.
“The public needs to know. The public has the right to know” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Comelec also yesterday belied reports that there are 57 non-existing precincts in the list provided by the poll body to the surveyors of Smartmatic Corp., and Total Information Management (TIM) Corp.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez disputed the report posted on the Web site of abs-cbn/Newsbreak of the ghost precincts in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.
“It was a regular report and it was misinterpreted as ghost precincts because of findings that supposedly so and so number was not found by the team. It’s as simple as that. The report itself does not make any claim that there are missing precincts,” he said.
The official said election officers already assured that these precincts are there.
Local surveyors hired by Smartmatic said that they cannot locate the precincts after conducting a check on the connectivity or existing telecommunication facilities in the areas.
Cesar Flores, Smartmatic president for Asia Pacific, said they have submitted the list of the missing precincts to the Comelec for appropriate action.
“The Comelec said they are going to look into that… Our surveyors have checked addresses but they could not find them. We are waiting for the report of the Comelec,” he added.
Flores said if Comelec will fail to locate this missing precincts they will still deliver the precinct count optical scan machines to these addresses.
At least 76,300 PCOS machines will be deployed by the Comelec days before the May 10 polls.
Link: http://www.tribune.net.ph/
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has spent more than P10 billion of the electoral body’s P16.5-billion budget for the country’s first ever computerized elections, the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) yesterday revealed.
Based on the data of Namfrel’s Bantay ng Bayan research, the poll body has spent 62 percent or around P10.241 billion of the total budget, including the P7.2-billion lease of the 82,200 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for the May 10 electoral exercises.
Among the other spendings and acquisitions of the Comelec include P243 million for the 77,000 ballot boxes (P3,155 per box) awarded to Smartmatic International Corp.; P28 million for the 80,000 units of handheld portable UV lamps awarded to OTC Paper Corp.; P75.8 million for the purchase of 720,000 bottles of indelible ink (P105 per bottle) to Texas Resources Corp.; P499.1 million for the tracking and delivery of official ballots to Smartmatic; P519 million procurement of ballot box transportation with PCOS machines nationwide; P1.5 billion for the cleansing of computerized voters’ list to Unison Join Venture; P2.1 million for the nine units of copying machines (P234,000 per unit) to Copylandia Office Systems Corp.; and
P172.4 million for the Storage and Working Area Logistics (leased racking system, pallets and lifters to Noah’s Paper Mills Inc.).
The former citizens’ arm of the poll body also urged the commission to be transparent and fully disclose the funds it has used to finance the automated May polls.
“The public needs to know. The public has the right to know” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Comelec also yesterday belied reports that there are 57 non-existing precincts in the list provided by the poll body to the surveyors of Smartmatic Corp., and Total Information Management (TIM) Corp.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez disputed the report posted on the Web site of abs-cbn/Newsbreak of the ghost precincts in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.
“It was a regular report and it was misinterpreted as ghost precincts because of findings that supposedly so and so number was not found by the team. It’s as simple as that. The report itself does not make any claim that there are missing precincts,” he said.
The official said election officers already assured that these precincts are there.
Local surveyors hired by Smartmatic said that they cannot locate the precincts after conducting a check on the connectivity or existing telecommunication facilities in the areas.
Cesar Flores, Smartmatic president for Asia Pacific, said they have submitted the list of the missing precincts to the Comelec for appropriate action.
“The Comelec said they are going to look into that… Our surveyors have checked addresses but they could not find them. We are waiting for the report of the Comelec,” he added.
Flores said if Comelec will fail to locate this missing precincts they will still deliver the precinct count optical scan machines to these addresses.
At least 76,300 PCOS machines will be deployed by the Comelec days before the May 10 polls.
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