U.S. Customs awards 10-year technology maintenance contract

U.S. Customs awards 10-year technology maintenance contract    Chenega Technology Services Corp., an tribally owned native Alaskan company, has won a contract potentially worth $500 million from the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to manage maintenance service and training for the agency's various inspection devices used at the nation's ports of entry.
   The 10-year contract (one year plus nine annual renewal options) calls for Chenega to integrate the maintenance schedules and dispatch operations of original equipment manufactures and others who service the approximately 12,000 x-ray and gamma-ray scanners, radiation detectors and identifiers, video surveillance systems, fiber optic scopes, laser range finders, vapor tracers and other devices. Chenega has offices in Virginia, Texas and several other states.
   The contract award is the largest ever made by a civilian agency under the Small Business Administration's 8(a) program to help small disadvantaged businesses compete for federal contracts, according to a news release issued by CBP last week.
   The $500-million figure is an estimate of how much Customs could spend during the course of the next 10 years for maintenance and includes the work performed by the equipment makers, vendors and other Chenega subcontractors, according to CBP spokeswoman Paula Keicer.