The COMELEC was eyeing PHP 200-million unified monitoring center for the 2022 elections.
COMELEC — The Commission on Elections was eyeing PHP 200-million unified monitoring center for the 2022 national and local elections.
COMELEC has issued a call for bidders to set up an “Election Monitoring and Action Center (CEMAC)” for the 2022 elections for a maximum price of PHP 200 million.
CNN Philippines reported that the monitoring hub must be fully set up 2 weeks before the election day and will continue until May 31, 2021.
The monitoring hub will also receive and respond to field reports sent through text, phone call, and online chat messages from COMELEC personnel manning the elections in the Philippines and abroad, much like a call center.
Those include issues encountered in polling centers, requests to troubleshoot or replace VCMs (vote counting machines), canvassing, and other operational concerns.
COMELEC officials and technical experts would be onsite for the duration of the voting period as the CEMAC will combine the Monitoring and Command Center, the National Technical Support Center, and the Office for Overseas Voting Support Center used in previous polls.
For the technical support center, CNN Philippines also reported that the bidder should have at least 450 personnel — including first-level VCM technical support staff and administrative support.
Based on bid documents, COMELEC required at least 100 call center agents onsite from April 25 to May 1, with the number to increase to at least 150 technical support staff and agents in succeeding days.
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CEMAC operations will be 24/7 from May 5 to May 16, covering preparations, actual voting day, and canvassing of ballots for the national and local polls.
According to the Commission on Elections, the winning bidder’s recruitment protocol shall be for the poll body’s final approval and COMELEC shall also be allowed to monitor the recruitment and training of the agents to be hired as well.
The winning bidder will also be in charge of finding an office space for the command center, which must be within a 10-km radius from COMELEC headquarters in Intramuros, Manila.
Moreover, the winning bidder should provide workstations and computers and the software for the reporting system, which should be able to farm out calls to an available agent within a minute.
The poll body will accept bids until November 3.
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