Melbourne, Australia - NEC is extremely disappointed by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) decision to terminate the Biometric Identification Services (BIS) project. NEC has worked closely with the ACIC to deliver the BIS project and have clearly demonstrated to the ACIC that we already have a high quality solution that will meet their needs. The BIS solution was built with data migrated from the legacy system on 14 February 2018. The BIS Solution was ready to be handed over to the ACIC for System Acceptance Testing when the project was placed on hold by the ACIC.

It is important to note that the ACIC terminated the contract under the ‘termination for convenience’ clause, and not because NEC had been in breach of its obligations. The termination for convenience clause allows government departments and agencies to terminate a contract, regardless of whether or not the contractor has committed a default or breach of that contract.

NEC has developed biometric technologies for over 40 years and has provided more than 700 biometric systems, including many for law enforcement agencies, in over 70 countries and territories worldwide. NEC’s facial recognition software is independently recognised as the fastest and most accurate on the global market. NEC was ranked #1 in 4 consecutive facial recognition benchmark tests conducted by the US Government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), greatly exceeding all other vendors in both accuracy and speed.

NEC remains committed and ready to deliver the BIS solution, regarded as a world class solution supporting law enforcement agencies in preventing, detecting and reducing crime in our communities.