Mita, the government's IT agency, has awarded contracts worth €2.5m with local companies for maintenance, support and upgrades of some of the government’s ICT systems..

Mita’s executive chairman  Tony Sultana explained that the contracts covered software development and operational services on applications managed by Mita.

“This is the first time that such services are being requested on such a wide spectrum of business areas that amongst others include statistics, government administration, health, social services, taxation, and funding.”

The contracts were awarded after a public call for companies to join an outsourcing framework for various services on more than 40 systems. Ten  suppliers are now participating in this framework.

More recently MITA issued three calls for tenders which were divided into different lots. They were won by 2i, Alert Communications Ltd, iLab Malta, Loqus Public Sector and Seasus.

Mr Sultana added that through this outsourcing framework the agency would be able to dedicate more time and resources on other programmes and initiatives which would yield an improved quality of life for citizens.

Parliamentary Secretary Jose' Herrera said Mita will be outsourcing 44 ICT systems to the private sector for a period of five years.

"This procurement shows that we want the private sector to participate more wholly in the development of the digital economy,” he said.