ANAO reappoints Unisys for $4.8 million contract

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has reappointed Unisys as its outsource service provider for a four-year contract worth $4.8 million.

Under the contract, Unisys will essentially be the Audit Office's IT department supporting around 300 users in Canberra and a smaller office in Sydney.

Significantly, ANAO has retained ownership of its hardware and software assets under the outsourcing contract. ANAO expects this will allow it to keep control of its investment, with Unisys providing vendor-independent advice when appropriate.

ANAO appointed Unisys after an open tender process, in which the audit office shortlisted five companies from 19 responses. ANAO has not been to the market since 1997, according to ANAO's chief information Peter J Green.

It was timely to reassess options in line with sound government procurement practice, Green said in a statement. 

'The Unisys proposal represented the best value for money and demonstrated several areas of superior performance and benefit. In particular, Unisys provides us with a team that is based both in-house and externally - giving us very efficient and flexible services and support,' he said.

'We also highly value the contractual requirement for Unisys to draw on its broad experience to keep the ANAO up-to-date with developments in information technology and maximise the use we get from our existing infrastructure.'