NSW Government's secret plan to give one in three IT jobs to India

Is there no one left in Australia who can fix a computer? Government’s secret plan to give one in three IT jobs to INDIA to keep costs down

NSW Roads and Maritime Services agency is taking bids for a 7-year contract
It has demanded bidding companies employ at least 30% of workers overseas
The plan is to reduce costs to use up as little of taxpayers’ money as possible
Two Indian companies have made the shortlist and submitted their revised bids

By Charlie Moore For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 16:58 BST, 26 July 2018 | Updated: 19:36 BST, 26 July 2018

The New South Wales government wants companies bidding for a big IT contract to employ a third of their workers overseas to keep costs low and save Australian taxpayers’ money.

The state’s Roads and Maritime Services agency is taking bids for a massive seven-year contract.

In its Request for Proposal document, the agency demands that bidding firms employ 20 per cent of their workers are overseas in year one, rising to 30 per cent in year two.

The New South Wales government wants companies bidding for a big IT contract to employ a third of their workers overseas. Two Indian companies have made the shortlist. Pictured: Mumbai, India

The New South Wales government wants companies bidding for a big IT contract to employ a third of their workers overseas. Two Indian companies have made the shortlist. Pictured: Mumbai, India

The document sent on February 13 explains this is to reduce costs to use up as little of Australian taxpayers’ money as possible.

‘RMS is seeking to achieve the lowest possible cost to provide the Services,’ it says.

Two Indian companies – Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro Ltd – have made the shortlist and submitted a more detailed offering to the agency in May, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Employing IT workers in India is up to 10 times cheaper than in Australia which has a high-wage economy.

A section of the government’s Request for Proposal document titled Offshore Resourcing asks for ‘a measured ongoing approach to increase offshore efforts over the contract term.’

Employing IT workers in India is up to 10 times cheaper than in Australia which has a high-wage economy (stock image)

Employing IT workers in India is up to 10 times cheaper than in Australia which has a high-wage economy (stock image)

It says it wants bidding companies to be ‘materially reducing costs by streamlining the applications suite, leveraging public cloud infrastructure and increasing automation.

‘Use of offshore resourcing (initially 20 per cent of total contract effort being offshore) with gradual increase over the contract term is expected to support the contractor to provide services at the possible lowest cost.’

Opposition Leader Luke Foley called the proposal a ‘disgrace’ and said the Berejiklian government was ‘betraying’ Australian workers.

An RMS spokesman said the bidding process was confidential. Roads Minister Melinda Pavey declined to comment.