DICT Undersecretary David Almirol Jr. placed on six-month suspension over contract conflict allegations

The Office of the Ombudsman ordered a six-month preventive suspension of DICT Undersecretary for E-Government David Almirol Jr., citing administrative complaints of grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the service, and a criminal complaint for violating the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials. The complaints arise from a June 2025 internal audit that identified a possible conflict of interest involving Almirol’s prior role as founder, president and CEO of Multisys Technologies Corporation, a position he held for more than a decade before his DICT appointment in August 2022.

The audit revealed that from November 2023 to May 2025 the department awarded eight e-government contracts to companies with financial relationships to Multisys, amounting to about P1.55 billion and covering consultancy, app deployment, cloud services, and software subscriptions. Multisys’ audited financials reported revenues of P110.8 million in 2023 and P514.6 million in 2024 from managed services provided to those related firms.

Records also indicate Almirol did not divest his interests immediately after assuming his DICT role. The suspension will remain in effect while the investigations proceed.