THE national government can save between P30 and P40 billion a year by streamlining its services under the E-Governance Act, said the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Wednesday.
The estimate was mentioned while government agencies have requested more than P200 billion in funding for information and communication technology projects for 2027 — an amount which DICT Undersecretary David Almirol said includes significant duplication and repetition.Better governance over these projects, he said, could unlock major savings.Speaking to reporters on the second day of DICT’s EGOV Hackathon event, Almirol said the government continues to pay for unused online services and cloud infrastructure — an issue the E-Governance Act could address if adopted across agencies.He cited the DICT’s own experience that it has, since 2023, decommissioned 60 percent of its cloud services by removing duplicate data and unused servers — cutting costs by the same margin.This could be replicated across the broader bureaucracy, Almirol said.The DICT also plans to set aside P100 million from its savings to support startups involved in developing the eGovPH app, engaging them as integrators, developers or researchers rather than contracting costlier foreign firms.
