The government has cancelled three major sector procurement framework (GPS) projects in a bid to increase competition and attract increased numbers of SMEs.

The announcement came after a review of all GPS projects. GPS’ have received criticism in the past for being wasteful, with suppliers forced to provide extensive bids in order to be entered into the awards process which had reduced the overall supplier pool.

Bill Crothers, Government Chief Procurement Officer, commented that: Frameworks which are already operating effectively and delivering significant change such as the Public Services Network and G-Cloud provide a model for success and will continue.”