IMG SOURCE: INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines -- As the 2022 elections near, the government has tapped Smartmatic Corp.-Total Information Management Corp. (Smartmatic-TIM) to refurbish the vote counting machines (VCM).

The Commission on Elections awarded the contract to Smartmatic after it won the bidding for the elections, tendering a P637,443,308.45 bid.

The deal's approved budget is P660,741,660.47.

In a notice, Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas said Smartmatic could now execute the Contract Agreement CA21-05-019, entitled "Contract for the Procurement of Vote Counting Machines (VCMS) Refurbishment with Consumables."

Under Smartmatic's contract with COMELEC, the company will be refurbising 97,145 units of VCMs.

Smartmatic will also be supplying 109,745 pieces of Secure Digital (SD) Cards (Main) and Worm SD Cards (Back-up) and 250,000 pieces of cleaning sheets.

Aside from the refurbishment contract, Smartmatic also won the over P400-million contract to provide for the automated election system (AES) software to be used in the 2022 elections.

Since 2010, the year of the country's  first automated national elections, Smartmatic has been the official vote counting machine supplier of COMELEC.