The Australian Tax Office (ATO) is readying its next set of tenders for three major bundles of outsourced IT services.
ATO chief information officer Ramez Katf said the tax agency is looking for flexibility as it ‘modernises’ the large existing portfolio.
“Our aim is to provide greater opportunities for competition, delivering better value for money for the Australian community,” Katf said in a statement.
“This is a reshape of how we get these services into the organisation. The technology ecosystem continues to evolve, and our outsourcing model needs to adapt and become future ready.”
Currently the services are bundled under three separate tenders.
The ‘provision of centralised computing’ is a 13-year, $2.1 billion contract given to US multinational DXC.
According to the ATO’s latest corporate tax data, DXC paid no tax on its $1.9 billion revenue in the 2018-19 financial year.
The remaining two bundles are for ‘end user technology and support’ and ‘enterprise service management’ – worth $558 million and $357 million respectively – which currently reside with US multinational Leidos.
Leidos had a tax bill of $3.1 million from its nearly $400 million revenue in 2018-19.
When asked if the ATO intends on continuing to outsource its lucrative IT infrastructure contracts to large overseas corporates instead of Australian businesses, an ATO spokesperson said its “approach to market will treat all suppliers fairly and seek to provide greater opportunities for competition”.
The ATO said it expects to issue a ‘request for information’ on the IT services bundles in June this year, with tender requests to follow in 2022 before the contracts begin in 2023.
Initial requests for information will help the ATO understand how to restructure its services with a view of how the IT landscape may take shape beyond 2023.
