Web infrastructure for specific government projects

The Department of Health and Ageing has issued a request for tender for Provision of infrastructure on which to host the Ageing Research Online (ARO) website. What is curious about this is that the department is asking for separate web support for this project, not using any departmental or government resources. If the Australian Government had a well supported web site, there would appear no need to duplicate the facilities in each project of each agency. Even if this service is better outsourced to the private sector, it would seem more efficient to have a contract set up for all such services.

Provision of infrastructure on which to host the Ageing Research Online (ARO) website

ATM ID	342/0809
Agency	Department of Health and Ageing
Category	43200000 - Components for information technology or broadcasting or telecommunications
Close Date & Time	29-Jun-2009 2:00 pm (ACT Local time) Show close time for other time zones
Publish Date	2-Jun-2009
Location	ACT, NSW, VIC, SA, WA, QLD, NT, TAS
ATM Type	Request for Tender
Description	The aim of the Website is to disseminate ageing research, and encourage the collaboration of researchers of ageing matters.
Other Instructions	Parties interested in tendering must address the evaluation criteria in the format outlined in the Request For Tender document, available in the first instance by registering on the Department's internet site at www.health.gov.au/tenders
Conditions for Participation	The tenderer will be required to have the network and hardware infrastructure to support the Website. Hosting services will include: telephone support and comprehensive 24/7 on-site support for the hardware, network and operating system; daily back-ups of the Website; a high level of physical and network security; and regular security updates to the operating system. ...