No budget, workers for national government data center – DICT

Photo from the official Facebook page of the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

MANILA, Philippines — A lack of budget and workers has held back the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) from establishing a consolidated government data center.

DICT Undersecretary David Almirol Jr. raised this concern on Tuesday during the Senate finance committee hearing on proposed P7.23 billion budget of the DICT for 2023.

Sen. Nancy Binay had asked whether the DICT could ensure the security of the proposed data center.

“As of now, DICT is on sailing sikap [self-reliance], Almirol said, speaking in a mix of English and Filipino. “When I check the capacity — the research and development capacity, which includes cybersecurity — we really lack people. Another problem aside from the budget is that the salaries of the IT [workers] are quite low. That’s nobody stays: There’s no sustainability.”

He later added: “That’s why, with your help, maybe you can help us on how to expand not only the budget but also to upscale it,”

In the DICT presentation before the panel, the national government data center was mentioned as among its initiatives aimed at “allowing strategic and better efficiency across government agencies.”

Almirol said the project would unify all data centers in the country to avoid scattered storage and information systems.

The DICT earlier committed itself to address its “pitiful” budget utilization, which its DICT Secretary Ivan Uy acknowledged during the budget deliberations in the lower chamber’s appropriations committee.

— CHRISTIAN PAUL DELA CRUZ (INQUIRER.net TRAINEE)

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