The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) and the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) have both extended their outsourcing contracts with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).

The total of the new contract extensions comes to $112 million.

DIMA will extend mainframe and mid-range support for the Border Critical Infrastructure (BCI) and related project work for an additional two years, with an option to extend another two.

The BCI relates to the information and systems used for border protection and national security.

Original contracts with DIMA and the AEC were signed in 1998 as part of the federal government's Cluster 3 outsourcing contracts worth approximately $160 million over three years. In 2002 DIMA extended the contract four years.

CSC provides mainframe services to the AEC and the existing contract has been extended one year with an option to extend another year.

Cluster 3 relates to the first group of federal government agencies undertaking IT infrastructure outsourcing, announced in July, 1997. The agencies include the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, The Australian Securities Commission, The Australian Electoral Commission and The Australian Industrial Property Organisation.

At the time, Finance Minister John Fahey said the Cluster 3 outsourcing contracts are specifically for mainframe, mid-range and desktop services as well as voice and data communications and represent in total 400 MIPS of mainframe capacity, 23 mid-range systems, 7500 desktop units, 90 local and wide area networks and 17,000 telephone services.

The BCI extension, for DIMA, falls within the original Cluster 3 tender.