DICT cites budget shortfall for the limited cloud capacity of the eGovPH app
Senator Bam Aquino said it is unacceptable for such critical systems to shut down.
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| File photo: eGovPH app |
eGovPH app faces budget constraints
The two-day shutdown of the eGovPH Super App was triggered by a surge in user activity following the rollout of new features, DICT officials said.
During a Senate hearing, Senator Bam Aquino revealed technical and budget constraints behind the instability of the app, which went down for two days in mid-April.
Explaining the reason behind the shutdown, DICT officials said there was a jump in the number of users after the app was updated with new features, such as the National ID e-Verify platform, according to a Rappler report.
DICT Undersecretary for e-Government David Almirol Jr. said the system struggled to keep up with simultaneous use across both public and private sectors.
We already have 91 million [registered on the National ID e-Verify platform]. When we launched it, banks, GCash, Maya, and even the DSWD started using it all at once, Almirol said.
He noted that the backend infrastructure was not built to absorb such a spike. DICT also did not anticipate the scale of adoption after e-wallet providers and government agencies fully integrated the system.
Since the digital National ID platform was out of their initiative, the official said DICT stretched its resources. Further, Almirol said their infrastructure supports around 3,000 servers, 95 percent of which host systems from other government agencies, further straining available resources.
When asked whether they do not have the capacity to pay for cloud server space, the official admitted that it is the reality.
Forty-one million downloads na po si eGov[PH]. Hindi namin ine-expect talaga yung massive adoption, DICT said, as reported by ABS-CBN.
DICT said it is now looking to decentralize this setup, but Aquino said the explanation was not enough and that the solution to the problem is subscribing to a higher tier.
The senator emphasized that it is unacceptable for critical systems to be down, especially those toed to identity verification and aid distribution.
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