The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) has awarded a consortium led by IBM an AU$495 million contract to help implement its Systems for People change program.
The four year program, announced in the federal budget, follows the department's independent reviews of the poor record-keeping which led to the wrongful detention of Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez.
"The department has a huge number of databases, both in Australia and overseas, which record all the contacts made with any individual client," said Immigration parliamentary secretary Andrew Robb in a statement.
"This change program will enable access to this contact data, as required, and give staff a single, comprehensive view of all dealings with any client."
Major projects in the program will include a document verification service, new visa processing systems, and biometrics.
DIMA said the IBM-led consortium had won an "extremely competitive" tender process.
