AN official of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) yesterday said the city government of Pasig was ill-advised when it prematurely procured its P1.242 billion worth of information technology (IT) infrastructure even before the construction of the new Pasig City Hall complex has started.
In a statement, assistant secretary and DICT spokesman Renato Paraiso pointed out that “technology upgrades so often that what you buy now may not be useful after four years, particularly on both IT software and hardware.”
The construction and development of the 46,000 square meter city hall complex, which was awarded to Philjaya on May 24, 2024, is projected to be completed in four or five years.
Paraiso noted news reports saying that the contract for the construction of the P9.6 billion complex supposedly includes the procurement of an IT system worth P1,242,966.011,
The IT package purportedly includes a Multi-Factor Authentication worth P104,885,370; Anti-Malware worth P38,033,191; Next Generation Firewall worth P40,851,272; Domain Name System and Email securities worth P25,967,021 and P24,861,752, respectively; Network Access Control worth P25,751,844; Access Switches worth P114,028,114; Wireless Local Area Network worth P75,493,933; Software-Defined Wide Area Network worth P25,955,755; and Data Center Network worth P47,355,899.
Paraiso said the Pasig city government could have first acquired the pre-operational setup requirements for the ICT system, such as cable provisions, switches and pull boxes, and telephone terminal cabinets, among other IT items, before the software and hardware.
He added that city officials could have consulted with and sought the endorsement of the DICT for its Information System Strategic Plan (ISSP), pointing out that Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2024-01 series 2024 enjoins national government offices to harmonize their IT systems for purposes of ensuring interoperability, efficiency, and consistency across government agencies and possibly private sectors.
