黑洞社区

Consultants bidding for a repeatedly-delayed 拢750m public sector framework have raised fears the procurement process could be open to legal challenge, which could further undermine the beleagured framework.

As 黑洞社区 revealed last week, the government鈥檚 private sector procurement partner UK SBS pushed back the deadline for bid submissions for the Project Management and Full Design Team Services framework the evening before the deadline on 29 November, after issuing more than 400 tender clarifications in the weeks leading up to the deadline.

黑洞社区 understands some bidders contacted UK SBS with concerns that aspects of the tender and clarifications were unclear.

UK SBS emailed bidders last Wednesday (4 December) with a consolidated list of 397 clarifications, with the new deadline set for this Monday (16 December).

The late extension and the volume of clarifications have prompted concerns that the procurement could be open to legal challenge.

One bidder said he felt his firm had been 鈥渦nfairly disadvantaged鈥� by the tender deadline extension. He said: 鈥渢he government is such a big client people might deem [legally challenging this] unwise鈥�.

Another bidder said he felt UK SBS extended the deadline at the last minute 鈥減rimarily to ward off the possibility of legal challenge鈥�.

Joanne Kelly, partner in law firm Taylor Wessing, said the delays and volume of clarifications 鈥渙pens the door鈥� to a legal challenge, but cautioned 鈥渢he chances of success are unlikely鈥�.

Kelly said: 鈥淭he volume of clarifications does bring into question the quality of the original tender. But it seems, where there have been delays, they have affected all the bidders and all the bidders have received the clarifications.

鈥淵ou have to demonstrate you鈥檝e been unfairly prejudiced to mount a successful challenge.鈥�

The four-year framework covers a raft of disciplines - including project management, architecture and engineering - and a wide array of public sector clients.

It was originally scheduled to go live when the previous iteration expired on 16 June 2013, but is now expected to go live in April 2014.

The Cabinet Office declined to comment.