CNE spokesperson Lucas Quilundo was speaking at a press conference, after the 2nd extraordinary meeting of the body, where the results of the public tenders launched at the end of 2021, regarding the transport of direct and reverse electoral logistics and for acquisition of technological solution and electoral logistics services, with a view to holding the general elections in August 2022.
According to Quilundo, 10 companies acquired the specifications for the technological solution, but only two submitted proposals, and SmartMatic's was excluded, as it was delivered in an envelope with the company's identification, violating the rules of the tender.
"The proposal must be placed in an opaque envelope so that there is no idea who the proposer is and it must not have elements of identification of the competitor", a principle that, according to the CNE spokesman, was not respected by the SmartMatic.
"As the objective in a competition is to determine a winner, naturally the remaining proposal was this one [Indra] that was the object of evaluation and adjudication for the conclusion of a contract", he said.
Asked whether the reputation of Indra, whose suitability has been called into question by the Angolan opposition, which links the company to electoral fraud, the CNE official said that "these issues are outside the CNE" and marginal to the contest, since, formally, "has no knowledge of any legal impediment that could jeopardize this company's right to bid".
"It is not in the interest of the National Electoral Commission or anyone else that the process is overshadowed in any way, but we have to stick to the facts, the CNE launches a contest and two contestants present themselves, one is eliminated, it is like that in any competition , even if there had been more competitors, only one would be left and Indra prevailed", he reiterated, considering that, regarding reputational issues, it is up to Indra to come to his defense.
"It is not for the CNE to make subjective assessments in relation to competitors (...) it is in the interest that the electoral process takes place with the utmost smoothness and that is what the CNE is doing, that is the commitment it has", he stressed, underlining that the tender criteria were followed.
Lucas Quilundo also referred that the excluded company presented a complaint, which was rejected, having lodged a hierarchical appeal to the highest body of the CNE (plenary), which was again rejected.
As he explained, the company claimed that "the conditions under which it presented its proposal could have been accepted and the evaluation committee concluded that the company had violated those rules", so the proposal was neither admitted nor opened.
"The CNE doesn't know what's there," he added.
As for the tender for the transport of electoral logistics, six companies drew up the specifications, of which four submitted proposals, two of which were eliminated due to non-compliance with the rules.
After technical and financial analysis, the choice fell on the proposal of the KPMB-LTI consortium.
The conclusion of contracts is still subject to approval by the Court of Auditors.
For the preparation of the elections, six evaluation committees were also created, which will proceed with the acquisition of services related to materials for civic education, lighting kits and generators, vehicles, mapping of polling stations, preparation of electoral rolls, construction of the architecture of the voter information system and acquisition of IT resources.
The CNE spokesperson also informed that the tender for the installation of the telecommunications infrastructure for the general elections to be installed by a public entity (Infosi, Instituto de Fomento para a Sociedade de Informação) is now closed.
