Question/Issue |
Answer/Clarification |
| Is the year 2000 the base year for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to be used? |
We shall not use the Consumer Price Index but the Wholesale Price Index. The base year is 1998. The term “Wholesale Consumer Price Index” in the RFP should read “Wholesale Price Index.” |
| Are the bidders allowed the flexibility to adjust the estimated budget for each component of the project, provided the total bid price is within the ABC? |
No. The budget is per Component. This means that in his bid, the bidder must not exceed the budget specified for each component. |
| Does the RFP envision a lease option to purchase arrangement for the PCOS machines? If so, when is the deadline to exercise the option to purchase? |
Yes. As stated in the RFP, in Part V, OTHER SPECIFICATIONS, Sec. 28.1, the Commission shall enter into a contract of lease with option to purchase not only the PCOS machine but the entire Component 1. The deadline to exercise the option is December 31, 2010. |
| Is the ballot box included as part of the “single integrated device”? |
No. However, the bidder has the option to include the ballot box as part of the “single integrated device”. |
| By automatically generating the face ballots in the EMS, COMELEC loses their ability to specify their requirements in the design and layout of the ballots. Please clarify how COMELEC would like to address this issue. Would the Commission compromise to allow for the automatic regeneration of all positions
to be voted for and all names of candidates running for these specific positions and not the actual design and layout of the ballots? |
COMELEC intends that the Election Day ballot faces shall be automatically generated by the Election Management System (EMS) for turnover purposes to NPO for the printing of ballots. However, the design and layout of the ballots should be customized to suit COMELEC’s needs, including the variables,
such as names of candidates per position, instructions to voters and other ballot requirements. |
| Please specify what is meant by the Commission in the requirement of “automatic paper forms handling”. |
The printer to be proposed shall be able to detect automatically the thickness of paper being used and shall be able to automatically set itself accordingly. |
| The Consolidation and Canvassing System shall allow the BOCs to digitally sign all electronic results and reports before transmission. Please specify your requirements for the digital signature. |
The digital signature shall be assigned by the winning bidder to all members of the BEI and the BOC (whether city, municipal, provincial, district). For the NBOCs, the digital signatures shall be assigned to all members of the Commission and to the Senate President and the House Speaker.
The digital signature shall be issued by a certificate authority nominated by the winning bidder and approved by the Comelec. |
| Can the COMELEC provide clarification on what the COMELEC deems “closed” with respect to the removable data storage device? |
The storage device should not allow anymore writing of data after one back-up operation |
| Would an encrypted read only file satisfy the requirement set forth in 4.6.3 for a “closed” data storage device? |
No. The data storage device must not allow further write operations. |
| Will the COMELEC provide the ballot definition content to be included on the 1,100 supplied ballots or will the Vendor be allowed to supply the ballot definition? |
For the evaluation demonstration, the vendor will be allowed to supply the ballot definition following the criteria for the ballot requirements as stated in the Part VII (Evaluation Criteria). |
| If the COMELEC is to provide the content will it include the total number of targets to be included and the number of votable positions to be marked? |
For the evaluation demonstration, the COMELEC will not provide contents for ballot |
| Will an expected pattern be used, or tabulated results compared to hand-counted results? |
Tabulated results will be compared to hand-counted results. |
If the ballots will be manually marked by a committee, what are the criteria for judging whether a given mark should be interpreted as a vote for the specified candidate in relation to mark characteristics such as mark density and percentage of target filled by the mark?
Can the COMELEC please clarify the definition of full shade, partial shade, check marks, and
x marks including how a given mark will be judged as “valid” for the purposes of comparing the manual hand-counts against the tabulated results from the PCOS machine? |
The machine should be able to recognize a check mark, an X mark, a full shading, or a partial shading of at least 50% coverage as a valid vote.
See Figure 2 (samples) |
| Will the COMELEC allow for the solutions provider to submit an alternative type of printer such as thermal, inkjet, laser with A4 or letter paper size? |
Yes. The SBAC has modified the RFP so as to give the bidder the option to use a laser, inkjet, dot matrix, or line printer, provided that it can also use legal size paper (8.5 by 14 in.). We will not accept a thermal printer. |
| Will COMELEC issue a letter of credit for 100% of the value of the contract, in only Philippine Pesos, US Dollars or a mixture of the two (at the discretion of the successful bidder), based on the published reference selling rate from the Banco Central on the date the bid is submitted? |
Comelec will pay only in Philippine pesos and not in any other currency. |
| Will the letter of credit be a sight or usance letter of credit? |
It will be a sight letter of credit. |
| When will COMELEC set the payment terms. |
On or before April 20, 2009. |
| Is the requirement for application development strictly limited to election definition creation or actual development of software/firmware? |
The requirement for application development includes both election definition creation and the actual development of software/firmware. |
| Does the requirement only apply to changes requested by the COMELEC during the “Customization of systems/systems development” timeframe? |
The requirement also applies to the customization of the systems. |
| What security will be provided for the transport, storage at polling sites and retrieval of units. |
Although the COMELEC will be requesting for assistance from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), the winning bidder has the primary responsibility to secure its own equipment until the end of the Project. |
| What is the estimated delivery date for: List of Voters, POP and list of candidates? |
The POP and list of candidates, not the list of voters, will be delivered by Comelec on or before December 7, 2009. |
| In total, how many ballots should the vendor provide for each precinct in the technical evaluation, and should these ballots be blank, or should they be voted in any particular pattern? |
For the demo system, the bidder shall provide the number of ballots needed to show 20,000 marks. Please take note that the “at least 99.995%” accuracy rating will be evaluated as 1 error from 20,000 marks. In addition, the bidder must provide 1,100 blank ballots.
Except for the 1,100 blank ballots, the ballots for the demo system following the Demo Model shall be pre-accomplished manually by the bidder prior to the conduct of the Systems Evaluation. |
| Regarding the 1,100 additional ballots, should these be from a particular precinct /municipality in the Demo Model? |
These ballots are for additional tests to be conducted by the TWG.
The bidder must configure these ballots for one precinct only, choosing any precinct in the Demo Model.
Please make sure also that the PCOS ballot counters can be reset to zero, as needed, for the additional tests. |
| Is it the responsibility of the winning vendor to provide the equipment to the parties listed under 4.6.1.4 for receiving of transmitted data? |
Yes. This is only 1 server to be shared by the dominant majority party, the dominant minority party, the accredited citizens’ arm and the KBP.
It may be housed in a location to be agreed upon by COMELEC, the winning bidder, and all groups concerned. |
| Does voter turnout include valid ballots + rejected ballots, or valid ballots only? |
Voter turnout includes only valid ballots. However, the machine should keep track of the number of rejected ballots. |
| Will the statement of the bidder that it is not black-listed be applicable to black-listing from any agency of the Philippine Government only or should the statement include that the bidder had not been blacklisted by any foreign government agency? |
Yes, it includes blacklisting in any agency of the Philippine government and in any foreign government agency |
| Can one precinct or clustered precinct be associated to more than one Barangay? |
No. All precincts constituting a clustered precinct shall be located in the same polling/voting center of the same barangay. |
| Can we get truck clearance/endorsement from COMELEC to enter customs area to pick up electoral equipments? |
No. |
| Does COMELEC have exemption for trucks bans? Can COMELEC give us clearance for trucks bans? |
No. |
| With regard to the dot matrix printer, does this mean we can use a line printer? |
Yes. The SBAC has modified the RFP so as to give the bidder the option to use a laser, inkjet, dot matrix, or line printer. We will not
accept a thermal printer. |
| In lieu of just UPS for the PCOS, may we also include generators? |
The UPS is not required for PCOS. The requirement for PCOS is for alternative power sources |
| May we have a sample of the ballot used in the ARMM elections as reference? |
Yes. A Xerox copy of the sample ballot used in the ARMM elections can be provided. |
Can COMELEC share the information from the study:
How long did it take an average voter to properly insert the ballot into the scanning machine?
How long did it take the machine to scan the accomplished ballot?
And, the total time each voter spent in front of the PCOS machine?
Was there a difference in the total time it took to vote for an urban computer-savvy voter as compared to rural less-experienced voters? |
The COMELEC will not provide this information since different technologies may take different lengths of time to accomplish the ballot and for a ballot to pass through the PCOS machine.
The bidder is expected to conduct its own time and motion study based on its proposed PCOS machine that will meet the requirements of the COMELEC for finishing the voting from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM considering a maximum number of 1,000 voters per clustered precinct. |
| In CLUSTERED Precincts, while using one PCOS for say, 5 precincts, will COMELEC require a one consolidated ER or 5 separate ERs (one for each precinct)? |
There will be one set of ERs (one for National positions, and one for Local Positions) for the clustered precinct, comprising 5 established precincts at the most. |
| Who will control the queue of voters from the 5 precincts to the PCOS machine? |
The BEI members of the clustered precinct are in-charge of all proceedings in the polling place on Election Day. |
| In the CLUSTERED Precinct PCOS machine, will COMELEC require a CD burner or a USB port/device to enable the transfer of the data to another site in case there is connection problem in the original voting site? |
Any removable storage device may be proposed as long as it can be closed from further WRITE operations after creating the backup copy of the election results. Whether the backup devices will be used as a contingency measure in case of transmission failure is another matter.
The bidder is also reminded of the >99% availability requirement for the electronic transmission service. |
If only one consolidated ER for every CLUSTERED Precincts PCOS is required, the procedure as stated in the RFP should be adjusted. What are the legal implications for such new procedures?
Ballot Printing - Is it a must to use the NPO? |
There will indeed be one ER for every clustered precinct. Although it consists of several precincts, where total number of registered voters does not exceed 1000. There is no necessity for any adjustment.
Yes. RA 9369 requires that printing of ballots is to be done by NPO. |
| Also, in what particular component of the project should the budget for paper to be used in printing the results in every level of the election process be included? |
At the precinct level, the paper for the ER is under Component 1. At the municipal, city, district, provincial and national levels, the paper for the COC, COCP, and SOV is not included, but shall be provided by Comelec. |
| Would the COMELEC SBAC be open to accept a bid offer, which includes a laser or ink-jet printer, which is of a better quality and provides security features, in lieu of a dot matrix printer, and a peripheral signature pad for the CCS? |
Yes. The SBAC has modified the RFP so as to give the bidder the option to use a laser, inkjet, dot matrix, or line printer. We will not accept a thermal printer. |
| Can the bidders propose an equivalent solution that maintains this goal, while being cheaper and more efficient? |
Yes. The SBAC has modified the RFP so as to give the bidder the option to use a laser, inkjet, dot matrix, or line printer. We will not accept a thermal printer. |
Is it possible to receive the list of sites (machines per polling sites) sorted by size of poling site?
For example - A Pooling site named BACACAY EAST CENTRAL SCHOOL. It has 35 Precincts and 14 Voting machines required. |
This can be done by the prospective bidders themselves using the CD that the SBAC will be distributing with the release of Bid Bulletin No. 4. The CD contains the concerned Annex files in MS Excel format. |
| Where does is show that this is considered ONE POLLING SITE (one of 37,780 such sites....) |
This can be found in the CD as Annex J – Project of Precincts (POP) |
| During the “End-to-end demonstration of Proposal”, what level of EMS, voting counting, consolidation/canvassing and transmission demonstration is required? |
The demo for the EMS should show how the election configuration data and ballot faces will be generated.
For the PCOS and CCs, the bidder should be able to demonstrate counting of votes as indicated on the test ballots, transmission of results, and consolidation and canvassing of results as specified by the Demo Model in the RFP. |
| Do bidders required to demonstrate EMS, voting counting, consolidation/canvassing and transmission as the noted Demo Model in the page 43? |
Yes |
| Do bidders required to demonstrate with every separate servers and PCs for each municipality, province, national, central to demonstrate real CCS? Or Demonstration of actual transmission with just ONE server and ONE PC to show results and data and print every reports. |
Yes. The bidder is to provide every separate servers and PCs for each municipality, province, national, central to demonstrate real CCS.
This means that a separate PCOS shall be used for each precinct in the Demo Model, separate canvassing unit for each municipality, for each province, for the national and for the central server. |
| What is the one configuration? |
The bidder may choose to use any of the precincts in the given Demo Model in the RFP. |
| How many PCOS and CCS is required for the “End-to-end demonstration of Proposal”? |
The bidder shall make use of a separate PCOS for each precinct in the Demo Model, separate canvassing unit for each municipality, for each province, for the national and for the central server. |
Per Bid Bulletin No. 4, COMELEC will provide the original (Excel, Word) version of the annexes, including Project of Precincts (POP) in the original files in the active tables.
Will these files be provided via email to all bidders? Or will the bidders obtain these files in the offices of COMELEC? |
These are already available in CD format and may be obtained from the SBAC Secretariat. |
| 1. According to RFP 19.2.2, it says "Each side of the ballot sheet shall be able to accommodate at least 300 names of candidates with a minimum font size of 10, in addition to other mandatory information required by law". Could you explain specifically about 'mandatory information required by law' and what law would be applied? |
This would include instructions to voters, the seal of the Republic of the Philippines, Arabic translation (when required), and other information specified in the other election-related laws, such as the Omnibus Election Code. |
| 2. According to RFP 25, it says “The system shall have alternative power sources, such as batteries, inverters or power generators, which will enable it to fully operate for at least 12 hours” and based on ‘power n telco’ file under your attached folder, “annexes”, there are the centers which have stable power and which have not stable power. We wonder whether it is allowed to provide alternative power sources only for the centers which have unstable power source. |
No. Aside from the areas without stable power supply, the capability should be available for all PCOS in case power failure occurs even in locations not included in the list of locations without stable power. |
| 3. The winning bidder has to provide landline cables for the precincts? We wonder whether we should prepare the cables. |
Yes. Part IV-Technical Specifications, Component 2 item no. 6 states that “All related requirements by the service which are needed to make it fully operational for the duration of the project shall be included in the proposal/offer, including the software and hardware.” |
| 1. In time of the demonstration of Proposal, we wonder whether a bidder should execute the CCSs of City/Municipality, Province, National, and Central Server on separate PC/Servers. Or, we consider providing all CCS services in one PC/Server. |
The bidder should demonstrate CCUs (Consolidation and Canvassing Units) of City/Municipality, Province, National, and Central Server on separate Canvassing Units/Servers. |
| 1. How many of PCOS and CCS should a bidder provide for the demonstration of proposal? |
Per diagram, the bidder has to provide 4 PCOS and 7 CCUs (Consolidation and Canvassing Units) |
| 2. Should our staffs attend in the demonstration of our AES? |
Yes. The bidder shall be the one to conduct demonstration. |
| 1. According to Systems Evaluation Checklist in RFP, it says "the demo system shall be graded with PASS/FAIL, or YES/NO." If the hardware/software performance of a bidder's demo system is much better than the checklist requirement (for example, the system scan a ballot sheet at the speed of 7 inches per second), the bidder will be given additional value on bid evaluation? |
No |
| 2. When the election is over, how will election-related equipments, such as PCOS machines, be stored? Will the COMELEC provide the storage? Or, should the winning bidder propose it as another bid and provide? |
The winning bidder shall be responsible for the pull out and warehousing as stated in item no. 14.2 Part V of the RFP |
| 1. a. iii. In the SBAC’s opinion, what portions of the project are considered significant and/or material (exceeding 20% of total project cost) and therefore cannot be subcontracted out by the bidder? |
The following portions of the project may be subcontracted: Deployment, warehousing, transmission facilities, security services, technical support, installation and pull out, Canvassing Units (hardware only), servers, printers, and UPS, provided that the aggregate value thereof does not exceed 20% of the total project cost.
The “Manual of Procedures for the Procurement of Goods and Services,” Vol. 2 (published by the GPPB) provides:
“All subcontracting arrangements must be disclosed at the time of bidding, and subcontractors must be identified in the bid submitted by the supplier. Any subcontracting arrangements made during project implementation and not disclosed at the time of the bidding shall not be allowed.
The subcontracting arrangement shall not relieve the supplier of any liability or obligation under the contract. Moreover, subcontractors are obliged to comply with the provisions of the contract and shall be jointly and severally liable with the principal supplier, in case of breach thereof, in so far as the portion of the contract subcontracted to it is concerned.
Subcontractors are also bound by the same nationality requirement that applies to the principal suppliers.”
The PCOS and software are considered material and significant and therefore must not be subcontracted. |
| 1. d. As part of our financial and resource planning, we would like to know what the specified Terms and Schedule of Payment will be for the Election Automation Project? |
Please see Delivery Schedule and the Special Conditions of Contract. |
| 1. e. Referring to SEC. 3.14 of the RFP (p.52), are the bidders allowed flexibility to adjust/exceed the estimated budget per component, provided that the overall bid price does not exceed the Approved Budget of the Contract (ABC)? |
No |
| 2. a. When are the providers required to submit the PCOS equipment for the POC to the SBAC? |
Per Part VI of the RFP, the demo units should be brought by the bidder with the Lowest Calculated Bid to the SBAC on April 30, 2009 for Proof of Concept (POC). |
| 4. b. How many simultaneous users will be configuring the election using the EMS? |
It will depend on the procedures (by direct entry or by importing data from mySQL format, mdb format, or csv format, into the EMS)
of configuring the election using the EMS as long as the creation of configuration and ballot faces can be finished in 2 months. |
| 4. c. When will the COMELEC provide the required election definition data to configure the 2010 election in the EMS? |
The election definition data shall be provided to vendor before December 7, 2009 per Implementation Calendar of the RFP. |
| 5. b. Referring to Sec. 3.3 of Component 1-C which states that a dot-matrix printer is required at each CCS station which must process 8-ply TSF paper; does this mean that there will be a pre-printed form in the papers? |
No. The paper shall be blank and plain.
The SBAC has modified the RFP so as to give the bidder the option to use a laser, inkjet, dot matrix, or line printer. We will not accept a thermal printer. |
| 5. c. Can we provide an alternate laser printer that works with standard A4 paper and prints faster than the proposed dot-matrix printer? |
Yes provided that it can also use legal size paper (8.5 by 14 in.). |
| 6. b. In the sample report formats sent to providers as Annex G there are two formats of ER (one for national positions and another or local). The RFP just mentions one ER report to be generated by the PCOS (e.g. section III, point 4.2). May we request for guidance as to which format the bidders should follow? |
There will be one set of ERs (one for National positions, and one for Local Positions) as stated in Annex G. |
| 6. c. Regarding the total quantity of ballots to be supplied, how many ballots will need to be supplied (i.e. total voters + extra ballots)? |
50 million ballots |
| i. How many official ballots will be needed for the May 2010 election? |
50 million |
| ii. How many spare ballots per precinct should be provided? |
none |
| iii. Will ballot quantities need to include ballots for OAVs? If so, how many OAVs should be accounted for? |
To be determined later. |
| iv. How many ballots for LAT (logic and accuracy testing) will be needed before the May 2010 election? |
82,000 |
| v. Will LAT (LAT testing) be used for the mock election? |
No. |
| vi. Will we need spare ballots for the mock election? Will that be 4 per site? |
You will need 3000 ballots for the entire mock election. |
Will it be possible for COMELEC to give us few more days for submission of our proposal?
Due to the holidays season we have difficulties to finish all documents on time and ask if it is possible to move the submission date to 30 April or 1 May? |
No. |
All terms, conditions and instructions to bidders specified in the RFP consistent with this Bid Bulletin shall remain in full force and effect.
This Bid Bulletin No. 10 shall form an integral part of the Bidding Documents for this project.
For information and guidance of all concerned.
15 April 2009.
