According to the Independent, government contractors have heavily criticised officials and ministers after plans to reform the £14bn budget agency that buys and looks after military kit - Defence Equipment & Support.

The MoD is introducing more limited reforms to have commercial companies run parts of the agency including IT and human resources. One of the fundamental deals is programme delivery which has been carved up into four along the lines of the three armed forces and combined command.

The Independent goes on to say that no one single company would be allowed to win more than two of the programme delivery contracts, resulting in major suppliers across the military requiring to deal with between two and four clients. There are several companies all in the running for the programme delivery roles including huge US project management conglomerates such as Bechtel, British engineering groups like WS Atkins, accountants and management consultants and it is this potential confusing structure that has met heavy criticism.

Despite efforts, plans failed to semi-privatise the Bristol-based DE&S last year leading this huge outsourcing deal to collapse.

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MoD procurement contract broken down for privatisation