MoD cancels £120m consultancy contract

Invitation to tender for MoD IT services has been scrapped

An invitation to tender for Ministry of Defence (MoD) IT consultancy services, announced in July 2009, has been scrapped as part of the coalition government's drive to cut spending.

The deal was to have been an enabling arrangement, with no specific levels of work guaranteed, but ministry teams were permitted to request consultancy work when needed and pay for it on a pro rata basis.

An estimated figure of £120m was given for the contract, but its actual worth could have been more or less than this.

MoD business teams will continue to use existing consultancy teams until October 2010. After October any MoD IT consultancy arrangement will come under a central government consultancy framework.

The new framework will cover IT consultancy for the majority of government departments, and is partly the result of the government's value for money review.

An MoD spokesperson said: “The Framework Agreement for Consultancy and Information Technology Support (FACITS) was designed to provide the opportunity for suppliers to tender for contracts as and when required by the MoD. After careful consideration the Ministry of Defence decided not to proceed with FACITS, but a cross-government framework planned from October will offer further tendering opportunities for industry.”

Companies that were involved in bidding for the MoD's contract will be able to tender again for the cross-government framework, meaning their work on the original tender will not be wasted.