DICT exec suspended over P1.5 billion contracts

DICT Undersecretary David Almirol Jr. founded Multisys Technologies Corp. in 2010 and served as its president and chief executive officer for more than a decade, the Office of the Ombudsman disclosed.

BusinessWorld / DICT Facebook page

MANILA, Philippines — An undersecretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has been suspended for six months by the ombudsman for allegedly awarding contracts worth P1.55 billion to companies linked to a firm he founded.

DICT Undersecretary David Almirol Jr. founded Multisys Technologies Corp. in 2010 and served as its president and chief executive officer for more than a decade, the Office of the Ombudsman disclosed.

Eight contracts related to the rollout of the eGovPH Super App were awarded to “companies with financial relationships with Multisys” from November 2023 to May 2025, the Office of the Ombudsman said.

Almirol did not divest immediately after his appointment in the DICT in August 2022, it noted.

“Respondent was still listed as a stockholder of Multisys holding 49.21 percent of the stocks,” the ombudsman said, citing Multisys’ general information sheet received by the Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2022.

According to the ombudsman, the contracts “covered information and communications technology consultancy, e-government application deployment, web-based messaging services, cloud infrastructure, data center colocation and software subscriptions.”

Almirol will undergo “preventive suspension for six months without pay pending the resolution of administrative complaints of grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and violation of the code of conduct and ethical standards for public officials and employees,” the ombudsman said yesterday.