CEC decides: American Smartmatic selected for introduction of election technologies, right to appeal exists

(Patria) - The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina at today's session made a decision by which the company Smartmatic BH d.o.o. was selected as the most favorable bidder for the procurement of equipment for biometric voter identification and scanning of ballot papers.

The decision was supported by 6 members, and only Vlado Rogić was against, stating that the Commission had changed the minutes regarding the procurement three times.

The contract will be awarded to Smartmatic with a total value of 74 million KM excluding VAT, with a 10 percent discount included. The contract is awarded for a period of four years. The decision is not final, and an appeal to the Appeals Review Office is possible within 10 days.

Previously, the Commission for the procurement of equipment for the biometric voter identification system and for scanning ballot papers at polling stations proposed the three most favorable bidders.

In first place, thanks to dumping prices, was a consortium of IT companies connected with HDZ and SNSD, and a Korean company that organized elections in Russia.

The consortium consisting of Planet Soft from Banja Luka, Katarina d.o.o. from Mostar, Core d.o.o. from Sarajevo, and the South Korean company Miru Systems made, at first glance, the most favorable offer for this job. Their offer is as much as 17 million marks cheaper than the next bidder.

American Smartmatic, which is second on the list, is asking for 74.5 million marks (plus VAT). The delivery time for the equipment is 139 days from the date of signing the contract, and the extended warranty is five years.

The third offer was submitted by the company Artco Group. They are asking for 79.7 million marks plus VAT for this job, and their delivery time is 170 days from the date of signing the contract.

In the Report on the execution of tasks for providing expert assistance in the procurement process of election technologies, sent to the Central Election Commission (CEC), signed by prof.dr. Nermin Lapandić, the work of the Public Procurement Commission was criticized because it did not perform its task of evaluating the best bidders lawfully.

“The Commission did not perform all legally required checks, including the check for an unnaturally low price, if the offer is acceptable. All documents and explanations prescribed by the Instruction (requests for clarification and supplementation of offers, requests for explanation of unnaturally low prices, opinions of expert services, acceptance of corrections, etc.) were not attached,” wrote Lapandić.

We remind you that the company Smartmatic already participated in the pilot project “Voter Authentication and Results Transmission” during the last Local Elections, which the CEC conducted at 165 polling stations, i.e., 11 basic electoral units, or cities and municipalities.