FORT WAYNE, IN (Indiana's NewsCenter) --- A new information technology contract for Allen County and the city of Fort Wayne could go to a foreign-based company. Nicole Pence has this exclusive story.

The City of Fort Wayne and Allen County government use one company now to run their IT programs. That company is "Affiliated Computer Services", or ACS Incorporated based in Texas. They've had a contract with the city and county for more than 15 years. But, now that's over. It looks like the new contract will go to one of two companies headquartered across the globe.

More than fifty people work for ACS locally. It's estimated their IT contract is roughly five million dollars per year. The city's chief information officer, Clifford Clarke, says they ended the contract with ACS because of technology expectations.

Thursday afternoon he used a power point presentation to show how their bid process for the IT contract was going. Out of eight potential bids, the group is now down to two: "ATOS Origins" and "CMC limited". Both have operations in the United States, but their headquarters are in France and India. Clarke argues even if these are foreign based companies, the money would stay local.

Clifford Clarke/Fort Wayne Chief Information Officer: “Value for the Citizens. That is not a function of whether it is five dollars, six dollars, or seven dollars, it's a return on the expectations of the citizens. There is nothing about the offering that they have to take off-shore. Absolutely nothing. And, we will make sure that doesn't happen via contract."

Clarke will not tell INC how much money the two final bids are being negotiated for. He says people employed with the ACS contract now, could be hired on with the new company.

No matter what company the IT group chooses to go with, County and City Councils have to give the o-k. That's expected by August, with one of the companies taking over by the end of the year.