Last week Unisys, a “worldwide information technology company”, released a press release detailing a new contract with the Department of Justice to manage the DOJ’s Consolidated Asset Tracking System (CATS). If all options are exercised by the government, the contract is worth some $105 million to Unisys over the course of the next five years:

BLUE BELL, Pa., June 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) was awarded a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to support Department of Justice (DOJ) Forfeiture Systems managed by the Asset Forfeiture Management Staff of the Justice Management Division.

The DOJ Asset Forfeiture Program (AFP) is a nationwide law enforcement program that has proven to be highly effective in the fight against crime. Twelve agencies, including several outside the DOJ, participate in the AFP.

Most of the work will focus on the Consolidated Asset Tracking System (CATS), the centerpiece of the program and the system that holds all of the data related to assets from the time they are seized by the government to when they are forfeited and auctioned off, repurposed or returned. Unisys will maintain, enhance, modernize and operate the CATS software and other related systems as well as provide associated services for help desk, security and systems integration.

The BPA has a six-month base period and four one-year options, exercisable at the discretion of the government. DOJ has awarded two task orders for the base period, worth an estimated total of $10.5 million. One of the task orders will cover analysis, development and testing of applications, while the other is for operations, engineering, security and support services. The DOJ can issue task orders for additional work under the BPA up to the ceiling value.

This contract follows a prior five year contract with Unisys that was awarded in 2007. A 2012 Government Accountability Office report indicated that “According to Justice and Treasury data, the cost of developing, maintaining, and overseeing their four asset tracking systems in fiscal year 2011 totaled $16.2 million for CATS and $10.4 million combined for the three Treasury asset tracking systems.” The same report indicates that “about $6.9 billion” in seized assets are being managed by the DOJ including the 2011 addition of “452 pieces of real property at a value of about $97 million, and over 3,000 pieces of personal property at a value of about $74 million.”