The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has allocated over PHP400 million for the procurement of software to be used for the automated elections in May 2022.

In an invitation to bid released on Tuesday, the Comelec set PHP452,522,321.43 as Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) for the purchase of Automated Elections System (AES) Software for the election management System (EMS), vote counting machines (VCMs) and consolidation and canvassing system (CCS).

It said a complete set of bidding documents may be acquired by interested bidders at the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) Secretariat Office for PHP50,000 or downloaded from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and the Comelec website with the applicable fee to be paid later on.

The pre-bid conference is set on Wednesday at 10 a.m., online via Microsoft Teams.

The deadline for the submission of bids is on Jan. 20, 2021, at 9 a.m. at the Bureau of the Treasury (BTR) Convention Hall of the Palacio del Gobernador Building in Intramuros, Manila.

The opening of bids is set on the same day at 10 a.m. at the same venue.

It also reminded that only Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least 60 percent interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, are allowed to participate in the bidding.

The Comelec added that the bidding will be done through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion.

The EMS compiles the number and profile of registered voters, their geographic locations, polling precinct information, among others, all of which are necessary for designing the official ballots.

The CCS does the automated tallying and monitoring of data received from polling precincts and lower levels of the board of canvassers. (PNA)