The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the preventive suspension of Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary for E-Government David Almirol Jr. for six months without pay over alleged conflict of interest involving government contracts worth P1.55 billion.
In a seven-page order, the Ombudsman found sufficient basis to place Almirol under preventive suspension while administrative complaints for grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, and violation of Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, are being resolved.
The complaints stemmed from a June 2025 report by the DICT Internal Audit Unit, which flagged the hiring of former Multisys personnel and the award of contracts to companies allegedly linked to the technology firm founded by Almirol.
The Ombudsman said evidence on record strongly supports the charges and noted that Almirol’s continued stay in office could affect the investigation because of his access to documents and other evidence relevant to the case.
Investigators found that from November 2023 to May 2025, the DICT awarded at least eight e-government-related contracts worth about P1.55 billion to companies with financial ties to Multisys Technologies Corporation. The contracts involved ICT consultancy services, e-government application deployment, messaging services, cloud infrastructure, data center colocation, and software subscriptions.
The Ombudsman also cited records showing that Almirol remained a shareholder of Multisys beyond the 60-day divestment period required under RA 6713 after his appointment in August 2022. A company filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2022 still listed him as owning 49.21 percent of the firm’s shares.
Almirol, who founded Multisys in 2010 and later led the rollout of the government’s eGovPH Super App, was removed from the company’s list of stockholders only in a subsequent filing submitted later that month.
The suspension order is immediately executory and will remain in effect pending the outcome of the administrative proceedings.# (ZIA LUNA)
