NEC to Conduct Re-demonstration of Bid Evaluation Today

As part of efforts to authenticate the validity of the claims made by the National Election Commission(NEC) in its selection of Ekemp International and partners to produce biometric voter ID cards for the 2023 elections, NEC is expected to conduct the re-demonstration of bid evaluation on this Thursday, October 6, 2022.

The conduct, according to NEC is in fulfillment of the Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC)’s request demanding a redo of the bid evaluation by use of video recording.

In its citation issued on September 26 to qualified bidders, NEC said “Each bidder is requested to start with a PowerPoint presentation regarding the equipment and software to be used, followed by an actual demonstration of its data entry, printing and deduplication process-using a person/persons designated by the Panel.”

Each of the bidders must have a copy of the PowerPoint presentation on a flash drive to submit to the Panel on the day of the presentation (today).

NEC disclosed further that its partners and stakeholders are invited to observe the process.

It can be recalled that PPCC denied NEC’s application for a “No Objection” approval to allow Ekemp to proceed with the production of the software as well as the technical and manpower support to produce the biometric VR cards expected to be introduced in the Country’s electoral system.

PPCC, in its argument as it exchanged responses with NEC, noted that still, photos alone could in no way have shown that Ekemp, the Chinese company along with its partners, including INITS, a Nigerian company, and Palm Insurance, a Liberian company, have the proven capacity to produce flawless biometric VR cards.

PPCC further argued that Ekemp along with its partners cannot also pre-finance the contract and, as such, it would be a risk to award the contract unless proven otherwise.
With the back-and-forth debate in which NEC argued that it was not in error for not doing a video-recorded demonstration, the Commission (NEC) later agreed to redo the evaluation process by ensuring the demonstration as requested by PPCC is taken care of.
Six companies including Network Solutions, Ekemp Int’l, Election Services Inc., HID Global and Liberian Partner, Waymark Infotech and Local Liberian Partner, and Laxton, a Canadian company, competed for the contract.

Laxton is said to have been disqualified based on its submission of biometric kits with laptops instead of tablets with fingerprint scanners as requested by the bid document. EKEMP and HID Global, on the other hand, presented almost the same biometric kits with tablets and fingerprint scanners but Ekemp, according to sources close to the Evaluation Panel at NEC, did not present the security feature as requested on page 72 of the bid document of NEC.

As part of efforts to authenticate the validity of the claims made by the National Election Commission(NEC) in its selection of Ekemp International and partners to produce biometric voter ID cards for the 2023 elections, NEC is expected to conduct the re-demonstration of bid evaluation on this Thursday, October 6, 2022.

The conduct, according to NEC is in fulfillment of the Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC)’s request demanding a redo of the bid evaluation by use of video recording.

In its citation issued on September 26 to qualified bidders, NEC said “Each bidder is requested to start with a PowerPoint presentation regarding the equipment and software to be used, followed by an actual demonstration of its data entry, printing and deduplication process-using a person/persons designated by the Panel.”

Each of the bidders must have a copy of the PowerPoint presentation on a flash drive to submit to the Panel on the day of the presentation (today).

NEC disclosed further that its partners and stakeholders are invited to observe the process.

It can be recalled that PPCC denied NEC’s application for a “No Objection” approval to allow Ekemp to proceed with the production of the software as well as the technical and manpower support to produce the biometric VR cards expected to be introduced in the Country’s electoral system.

PPCC, in its argument as it exchanged responses with NEC, noted that still, photos alone could in no way have shown that Ekemp, the Chinese company along with its partners, including INITS, a Nigerian company, and Palm Insurance, a Liberian company, have the proven capacity to produce flawless biometric VR cards.

PPCC further argued that Ekemp along with its partners cannot also pre-finance the contract and, as such, it would be a risk to award the contract unless proven otherwise.
With the back-and-forth debate in which NEC argued that it was not in error for not doing a video-recorded demonstration, the Commission (NEC) later agreed to redo the evaluation process by ensuring the demonstration as requested by PPCC is taken care of.
Six companies including Network Solutions, Ekemp Int’l, Election Services Inc., HID Global and Liberian Partner, Waymark Infotech and Local Liberian Partner, and Laxton, a Canadian company, competed for the contract.

Laxton is said to have been disqualified based on its submission of biometric kits with laptops instead of tablets with fingerprint scanners as requested by the bid document. EKEMP and HID Global, on the other hand, presented almost the same biometric kits with tablets and fingerprint scanners but Ekemp, according to sources close to the Evaluation Panel at NEC, did not present the security feature as requested on page 72 of the bid document of NEC.