£6bn framework delayed amid apparent legal challenge

Sources suspect disgruntled bidder could be mounting legal action over outcome of Technology Products framework

The launch of the government's new Technology Products uber-framework has been delayed by what appears to be a legal challenge.

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) wrote to succesful bidders last night to inform them the standstill period for the £6bn public sector purchasing vehicle - a replacement for the outgoing CITHS - has been extended for a second time.

"The Crown Commercial Service has been served with proceedings and will not be progressing to award at this time," the email - which was relayed to CRN - read.

"Once we are in a position to award, we will issue a further broadcast message."

The wording of the missive has been interpreted in some circles as a sign that a spurned bidder may have launched legal action after lodging an unsuccessful appeal.

Although the provisional line-up of 33 winners - revealed by CRN- contained many familiar faces, some large channel players featuring on CITHS were notable by their absence.

The cooling-off period was set to end last Thursday after ten days but was extended temporarily until yesterday.

CCS gave no indication of how quickly this second delay may be resolved, but suppliers remain hopeful that Technology Products will go live before CITHS expires at the end of October.

One source said the government had made its scoring processes for large tenders more robust in the wake of Virgin's successful challenge against the government's decision to award the West Coast Main Line rail franchise to FirstGroup in 2012.

"Further delays to getting this major framework launched are far from ideal, especially with only six weeks left of the CITHS framework extension," said the supplier in question.

"We're confident, however, that CCS has used sufficiently thorough and robust processes to be able to demonstrate a fair award decision, and we're sure they'll move very quickly to resolve the legal issues and give the market the clarity it needs."

With an estimated worth of between £4bn and £6bn over its lifetime, Technology Products - which was originally called IT Pass - is split into four lots that cover IT hardware and packaged software.

Update

Since this story went live, a Cabinet Office spokesperson sent us the following statement:

"We can confirm that we are dealing with legal proceedings but we are unable to comment further at this point. We are working to resolve this as soon as possible and will provide an update to bidders and customers in due course."