Federal IT Contracts Reached $60B In Fiscal 2002Federal IT Contracts Reached $60B In Fiscal 2002

The federal government awarded more than $60 billion in IT-related contracts last year, according to an analysis by the government IT market-intelligence firm Input.

Five departments accounted for $44 billion in awards in calendar year 2002, Input says. The Transportation Department awarded the most: $24 billion. The contracts for one project alone, a Coast Guard modernization venture called the Deepwater program, was valued at $17 billion over 30 years. Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a joint venture by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp., picked that one up.

The Coast Guard, now part of the Transportation Department, is becoming part of the new Homeland Security Department. No other agency came close in the amount of contracts awarded by Transportation. The Commerce Department awarded IT outsourcing services contracts valued at $5.7 billion, driven largely by the a $4.5 billion, 12-year contract to TRW (now owned by Northrop Grumman) for the National Polar Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. The Army awarded $5.2 million in IT contracts. The Department of Defense and the Office of Defense Secretary awarded $4.9 million; and the Navy, $4.4 million, according to Input.

Looking at the outlays by the kind of projects being funded, the government spent more than $24.3 billion for IT outsourcing last year, including applications operations, desktop services, and data-center operations. Outsourcing, in fact, was the biggest single category. A close second: professional services, at $20.8 billion. A distant third was network and telecom services, at $9.5 billion.