The costly Filipino mañana habit
By Joe Espiritu
For almost a year, the Commission on Election scheduled the registering of new and transferee voters. Most of the time there were few registrants on any given day during that period. As the registration drew to a close, new voters came in droves overwhelming Comelec personnel with their numbers. Complaints were aired on the lack of the registration system. Despite the extended hours on the last day, there were those who were not able to register. Then the Supreme Court ordered that voters’ registration be extended a few days. The Automated Election System is in a verge of being derailed.
Comelec authorities had pronounced the systems acceptable after a test, which was made under the monitoring of competent authorities. That means that the prototype hardware; the machines, and software the instruction systems are working to produce the required result. What remains is the site test to pronounce the whole set up ready for the 2010 presidential elections. To prevent hackers’ access, the automated system is not to be installed until the last moment. Not being privy to the arrangement made by the Comelec and Smartmatic, as a software systems specialist, we can only conjecture how the arrangement was made. It would not be far from the usual practice.
When the Comelec started the automatic election project, they asked for proposals from qualified bidders. Naturally the bidders will first conduct a thorough survey, draw up a preliminary systems design and demonstrate how the system would work. If the management is convinced a contract is signed and the project starts. Then the management is presented a prototype and a performance test is conducted. If and when the kinks are ironed out and it runs according to the management specifications the installation phase of the project follows. After the installation and site test acceptance the contract is paid.
It is not as simple as that. The hardware or machines can be safeguarded by physical security. What are most vulnerable in automation or computerization are software, the programs – instructions to computers-, series of programs – the software systems and the records and files. Hackers, unscrupulous software specialists, try to manipulate or insert computer instructions either to disrupt the process or produce result, which will favor a person or group of persons. Systems engineers place program routines, which ask for codes or passwords before allowing the process to continue or granting access to protected or restricted files. Automation is a field of a never ending battle between the systems engineer and hacker. The best weapon of the systems engineer is time. Before a hacker cam crack the code. The codes are changed.
When a software system is created, the management draws up a series of specifications on how the software is going to work. The contractor confers with the management to be sure he understands the specification. A timeframe is set. The software is to be finished on time or else pay penalty for every day the project is unfinished. . However, after the software is finished, tested and accepted by the management, if there are any changes required, which was not covered the original specification, the management must pay an addition fee. Then the completion timetable is reset. The original Automated Election System starts another processing phase after the voters registration has officially ended. To extend registration may need changes in the software hence additional systems design and programming.
Perhaps the Smartmatic software system is open ended that it can accept minor revisions and the contract allows one or two minor revisions without paying addition fees. If the voters had just registered in the required time, imagine a registration period of around ten moths, there would have been no registration extension. The Automated election system may not be jeopardized. The mañana habit of the Filipinos would someday cause his downfall...
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