July 3, 2009 · Posted in: 2010 Elections, Comelec Watch, Governance, In the News
Partners’ squabbles sideline bigger security, tech issues
The last of the two-part PCIJ report on poll automation takes a closer look at the winning bid of squabbling partners Smartmatic International and Total Information Management (TIM), including concerns by technology experts about the security of the system and the various technologies involved.
In a sidebar, the PCIJ takes a look at the financial proposal of Smartmatic-TIM for the project and finds some peculiar listings involving hardware items, for which PhP5 billion of the total PhP7.2 billion project is allocated.
4 Responses to Partners’ squabbles sideline bigger security, tech issues
JaimeG
July 6th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
All due respect but I read the article (http://www.pcij.org/stories/2009/election-automation3.html) and there may be some serious flaws in your research.
Can someone provide the specs for these modems and other devices? I mean we all know that the 350peso CD-RKING USB ( generic) is very different from one made by Kingston ( branded) and certainly a mission critical USB may be more expensive than that. Much more if the supplier has “ruggedized” ( made more durable for a specific mission critical use) a particular piece of hardware then the cost shoots up even more.
The same goes for the GPRS capable modems.
All one has to do is look at an IBM laptop, a NEO laptop, or a unknown brand laptop to understand that without the specifications, load capacity reliability and field testing for reliability (I/O), and physical durability to understand that without specs this article is fairly misleading.
Jaemark Tordecilla
July 6th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
actually, a kingston data traveler (1gb) retails for PhP350 at villman
http://www.villman.com/Product-Detail/Kingston_dti100_1gb
tongue in, anew
July 10th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Smartmatic’s PCOS is basically the same machine used in reading, printing, and transmitting bets placed on Philippine Lotto. The main difference is the scanner bed dimension and the printer media.
The lotto betting machine leases for only P15,000.
Is the PCOS price tag which is 8 times more expensive worth it’s value? I don’t think so.
Hello Ferdie
July 12th, 2009 at 8:02 am
The overpricing is an issue that must be tackled but I am more worried about the statement from Smartmatic that their “technicians simply “unblocked” the results of Wao’s vote.”
It is worrisome that an election vendor has access to election servers on election day. This puts in doubt any elections implemented by Smartmatic (including the Venezuelan referendum).
It is more worrisome that it has been apparently reported to the CAC and yet the CAC recommended that Comelec directly partner with Smartmatic when TIM pulled out!
Since your article came out, I have made research on Smartmatic and I found out that in the ARMM elections, 30% of the transmission failed (http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/05/23/09/ex-commissioner-dont-force-poll-automation).
This failure, together with the incident at Wao makes one wonder why Comelec still allowed Smartmatic to bid for the May 2010 elections.
I also came across a document from Comelec (not verified though since it was not from the Comelec website) rejecting the bid of Smartmatic in the ARMM project and yet they ended up implementing the project (http://comelec.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/com_res_8436.pdf).
I also saw this video on youtube entitled “4 Steps to Dictatorship” that made my skin crawl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_cCNrnCGFU
I am hoping the PCIJ will dig deeper into this.