Calls mount for P7.2-B PCOS deal audit

Even with a high profile public relations offensive by Smartmatic officials to counteract the growing allegations of electoral fraud, and hiring the 2008 Miss Universe, a Venezuelan, as Miss Transparency for Smartmatic, and despite the Commission on Elections (Comelec) claim of the country having held the first successful nationwide automated elections, computer experts took the strong view that there are still lots of questions that need to be resolved, among which is the issue of having a financial audit as far as the P7.2 billion cost of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines leased by Smartmatic-TIM to the Comelec.

Also at issue are the reported P4-billion additional budget which was given by Comelec to Smartmatic, the absence of UV lamps which were not utilized, the multimillion-peso secrecy folders, indelible ink, ballot and pre- shading and other forms of fraud such as vote shaving and vote buying during the election.

These issues were yesterday aired during the forum “Hocus-PCOS and Noynoy (Aquino’s) first 100 days” held at the De La Salle University where Prof. Sherwin Ola, a computer professor, and others shared their views on the recent automated election, with the consensus established that there is a need to have the P7-billion contract of Smartmatic undergo a post audit.

Ola said “in the parlance of IT community, there are lots of issues that should be addressed as the report of massive disenfranchisement happened as reported by the Comelec to have reached the figure of 20 percent of the voting population, estimated at 51 million, or a disenfranchisement of over 10 million voters on election day.

Another resource speaker, Dr. Giovanni Tapang, UP Physics professor and Kontra Daya head, said the automated election system last May 10 was a hodgepodge and had hoc

solutions on election day itself and simply did not work as planned.

Tapang, through his powerpoint presentation, said that the people can prepare for vulnerabilities but that the Comelec chose to ignore these and the poll body even opened the avenue for more vulnerabilities of the system to come in.

On Ola’s part he stressed that now is the time to have a lifestyle check conducted on Comelec officials who he said have the track record for being corrupt due to the fact that the automation was pushed and the cost of leasing the PCOS machines at P7.2 billion is too high.

“Who made money on this? Who benefited from this?,” he pointed out.

“ Comelec should show the data and check if the accuracy of the machines conforms with the ballot as paper trail in order to determine if the people’s money is worth the rental price of the PCOS machines,” added Ola.

The group noted that Comelec officials were not prepared to conduct the nationwide automated polls and that the recently conducted May elections only served as an “on-the-job (OJT) training for the Comelec officials who were mostly lawyers and not IT knowledgable.

Ola suggested that the Comelec should strengthen its IT capabilities by installing at least two commissioners who have computer expertise with unquestionable integrity.

At the same forum where the topic on the first 100 days in office of the newly elected President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, Renato Reyes Jr., Bayan Secretary General tackled the issue on how Aquino can fulfill the promise in his TV advertisement “the straight road,” where people will lay their expectation for change.

There was also the topic of the reversal of Arroyo policies; key appointments of government post (appointees); Closure of important issues such as corruption, human right abuses, election fraud allegedly committed by Arroyo, and; review of midnight appointees and deals which some believe were done to cover the tracks on anomalies such as the shredding of records.

Earlier,poll watchdog, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) called on the Comelec to make public several documents related to it plan to conduct an independent study of the recently concluded automated elections.

CenPEG called fpr a full disclosure of the documents related to the implementation of the first-ever nationwide automated polls before an unprejudiced assessment can be made.

Among the documents CenPeg wants released to the public are: the source could walk through program; the source code of the PCOS program; file formats of all data files used or produced by the PCOS program; public keys used by all the PCOS computers; public keys used by all the servers; user manual of the PCOS program; and the Smartmatic-Comelec contract with the complete annexes

CenPEG also called for the release of documents detailing he finance and budget plan of the AES-Smartmatic; copy of the Smartmatic Voters’ Education contract; report on the PCOS transmission on May 10 and thereafter; report on the training of Board of Election Inspectors and technicians; inventory of compact flash cards used in the final testing and sealing; and the reconfigured CF cards for May 10.

To date, however, despite all these calls for transparency and making the documents public, neither the Comelec nor Smartmatic has heeded the calls of the poll watchdogs, despite the many allegations of electronic fraud and irregularities in the system.

“Various stakeholders (need) to help find answers to many questions that affect the credibility of the elections, especially with regard to some unusual incidences occurring with the PCOS machines of the Smartmatic-propelled automated system,” CenPEG said in a statement.

Meanwhile, investigators from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has formally asked Quezon City Rep. Annie Susano to attend a case conference on Monday on the source of the compact flash (CF) cards the lawmaker presented before a legislative inquiry on alleged irregularities in the May 10 elections.

Acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra said Susano has been invited to attend the conference on Monday at 2 p.m at the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila. Smartmatic and Comelec officials have already submitted their respective sworn statements to the NBI, Agra said.

“The purpose is to determine if there are lacking or missing CF cards. If there were are missing CF cards, then we have to know if it these were (the missing ones from) Quezon City,” he said.

The NBI has traced the source of CF cards but would not comment further.

After getting the result of the inventory, the next step is to determine if there is a violation of elections laws and file charges against personalities who committed offenses, if there is any. “But I don’t want to preempt the result of the probe. Let’s wait before taking the next step,” he said.

Agra said they are still waiting for the response of the United States Embassy for assistance to invoke Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) to determine who uploaded the “Hello Nico” conversation.

Agra said the NBI had already traced the website where the conversation was uploaded. “The website was already traced but once it opened, we were diverted to other site apparently Germany (site). It was apparently a US-based website so we are asking help of the US through MLAT,” Agra said.

He said they have already written a letter to the US Embassy about the request.

Agra said a copy of the compact disc (CD) containing the alleged wiretapped phone conversation between Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer has already been turned over to NBI Director Nestor Mantaring.

Both Puno and Ferrer denied that they were the persons in the phone conversation. The wiretapped phone conversation circulated in the internet.

The NBI –Special Task Force (STF) under Head Agent Arnel Dalumpines was tasked by NBI Director Mantaring to handle the probe into the CF cards controversy.

In a related development, it was learned that the Comelec has again deferred the release of a report regarding the P690-million ballot secrecy folder contract because of lack of documents.

Results of the probe into the deal–previously considered “extravagant”, may be released on June 22, Comelec law department head Ferdinand Rafanan said.

The investigation report’s release had been earlier delayed due to similar reasons.

The panel tasked to investigate the controversy was formed early April but no resolution has been issued yet, more than two months after the probe.

Rafanan told reporters in a text message on Friday that the Comelec Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), Executive Director Jose Tolentino, and ballot folder supplier One Time Carbon (OTC) Paper Supply have yet to submit some documents despite his “repeated demands.”

Hw refused to elaborate any further. He also said that it would be better to ask Comelec chairman Jose Melo about the matter after he will have submitted the report to the Comelec en banc on Tuesday. –Pat C. Santos with Benjamin B. Pulta and PNA