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Thursday, March 28, 2024

DICT officials face complaint over P512-m IT project

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A complaint was filed with the Office of the Ombudsman  against the officials of the  Department Information and Communications over alleged irregularity in the bidding of the P512-million cybersecurity management project. 

A certain Peter Wakkin Ogues said in a complaint before the Ombudsman dated March 18, 2019 that there was enough evidence to investigate DICT Assistant Secretary Allan Cabanlong and other officials of  the department for alleged violations of Section 3 of Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. 

Ogues said under Section 24 of the Ombudsman Act, Cabanlong and his accomplices could be suspended by the Ombudsman as the charge against them pertained to dishonesty, oppression, grave misconduct or neglect in the performance of duty.

Sought for comment, Cabanlong said he had not yet received the formal complaint from the Ombudsman. 

“This is pure harassment and we are ready to face any investigation. I don’t know this person and I believe that he has no personal knowledge on the said process of bidding. He might have been used by people behind him who would like to  see the project fail who is probably one of the losing bidders,” he said. 

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Acting DICT Secretary Eliseo Rio said the selection process for the cybersecurity project was “above board.” 

“We are waiting for the formal letter from the Ombudsman to give our side. We can answer all the allegations but at the proper forum,” he said.

The DICT in January 2019 launched CMSP, the country’s  national platform for intelligence sharing to comprehensively monitor threats and defend the country’s cyber infrastructure from cyber attacks.

The project is set to be completed in 10 and a half months starting from the issuance of the notice to proceed on Jan. 15.

“This kick-off for the CMS project is a great cue for us to keep taking bold action in this gargantuan task of safeguarding our citizens in the cyber realm,” Rio earlier said in a statement. 

The platform aims to build the resilience of the country as a part of the National Cybersecurity Plan 2022.

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