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Comelec to isolate bids officers during procurement process


MANILA, Philippines — To ensure transparency in the process, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will keep members of its Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) incommunicado for nearly one month, starting this Monday. An entry on the Comelec blog site (www.bagongbotante.ph) said the SBAC members will be brought to an undisclosed location from Day One until the contract is awarded. While the Comelec did not say how long the SBAC members will be isolated, its initial calendar of activities for the 2010 automated elections indicated the issuance of a notice of award of the contract will be on May 22. It said the SBAC is set to open Monday all bids for the P11.2-billion contract for the 2010 poll automation project. All these precautions are meant "to ensure integrity and transparency in the poll automation procurement process," the Comelec said. Comelec spokesman James Arthur Jimenez said the decision to keep its SBAC from public view proves the poll body is "dead serious" in shielding its people from wrongdoing on the automation project. The SBAC has Comelec Law Department director Ferdinand Rafanan as chairman; lawyer Adolfo Ibañez as vice chairman; and lawyers Ray Doma, Divina Blas-Perez and Aida Fernandez as members. Meanwhile, Jimenez said the Office of the Ombudsman has assured the Comelec en banc of its intent to help the poll body monitor and ensure transparency in the poll automation procurement contract. He said Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez created “Task Force Poll Automation" last April 22, to assist the Comelec in observing the entire bidding process up to the awarding of the contract. The task force will also help in monitoring the overall implementation of the poll automation project, Jimenez added. The Ombudsman task force includes Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro as Chairman, and Assistant Ombudsman Evelyn Baliton and Acting Director Rafael Hipolito as vice chairmen. - GMANews.TV
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