Initial TSA orders worth $244 million to Unisys

Unisys Corp. will receive $244 million over the next 13 1/2 months for a wide range of outsourcing and infrastructure services under two task orders awarded last week by the Transportation Security Administration, according to the company. The combined task orders are worth $23 million for the rest of fiscal 2002 and $221 million for 2003.TSA chose Unisys Aug. 2 as the prime contractor for its $1 billion program to obtain information technology and telecommunications services, including hardware and software services, help desk, network and security operations and business process. However, Unisys could not begin work until the initial task orders were approved by the Homeland Security IT Investment Review Group, established in July by the Office of Management and Budget. OMB has imposed a temporary spending freeze on new major projects planned by TSA and other agencies slated for the proposed Department of Homeland Security, pending approval by the review group. Last week's approval of the TSA project applies only to the first two task orders, according to a Unisys spokeswoman. Future task orders against the $1 billion contract also must be approved by the review group. The Homeland Security IT Investment Review Group, which includes OMB officials and the chief information officers from the affected agencies, is seeking to coordinate IT spending and eliminate redundancies among these agencies. The freeze applies to IT projects costing more than $500,000.