The Office of the Ombudsman has placed Department of Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary for E-Government David L. Almirol Jr. under a six-month preventive suspension without pay over an alleged conflict of interest involving 1.55 billion pesos in government contracts.
In a seven-page order released Wednesday, Oct. 21, the anti-graft body found sufficient grounds to suspend Almirol pending administrative adjudication for grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and violations of Republic Act No. 6713, also known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. The case focuses on eight digital government contracts awarded between November 2023 and May 2025 to commercial entities with financial ties to Multisys Technologies Corp., a company Almirol founded and previously managed.
The complaints originated from a June 2025 report by the DICT Internal Audit Unit that flagged contract awards to affiliated firms and the recruitment of former Multisys personnel into the agency. Almirol served as president and chief executive officer of Multisys for more than a decade before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed him to the DICT in August 2022, where he directed the rollout of the state’s flagship eGovPH Super App.
According to investigators, the eight contracts covered cloud infrastructure, e-government application deployment, information technology consultancy, software subscriptions, data center colocation and web-based messaging services. Multisys financial statements indicated that the firm collected 110.8 million pesos in 2023 and 514.6 million pesos in 2024 from those contracted companies for managed services.
The Ombudsman also cited corporate records showing Almirol failed to divest his commercial holdings within the statutory 60-day limit following his appointment. A General Information Sheet submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 2, 2022 showed Almirol retained a 49.21% equity stake in Multisys before his name was removed in a subsequent filing on Nov. 21, 2022.
The anti-graft body noted that the suspension is a precautionary measure rather than a final penalty, intended to prevent potential interference with records under Almirol’s custody. The order took effect immediately, with DICT Secretary Robert Joseph de Claro directed to submit proof of enforcement.
Disclosure: AI is used to assist in developing this story.
This article is published on BitPinas: Ombudsman Suspends DICT Undersecretary Almirol Over Alleged P1.55B Conflict of Interest
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