The government has cancelled one part of its public sector catalogue of framework deals because of the impact of the shared services agenda.

More than 20 suppliers were on the shortlist for the Total Solutions part of the updated Catalist catalogue, scrapped last week.

Whitehall purchasing agency OGC Buying.Solutions (OGCbs), which runs Catalist, says the cancellation will avoid confusion as plans to share back office administration systems between organisations take shape.

But Nick Kalisperas, government director at supplier trade group Intellect, says the industry is extremely disappointed.

‘Some of our members spent a great deal of money and time on this procurement and are understandably frustrated,’ he said.

‘We call on OGCbs to inform suppliers as quickly as possible of its next course of action to ensure the industry retains confidence in the Catalist scheme.’

OGCbs director of frameworks David Rothewell said: ‘We acknowledge suppliers have been disappointed. We will carry out a review to determine how the market for major converged IT solutions may be addressed and anticipate completing that in about three months.’

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