The framework, launched as funding cuts have resulted in a reduction of in-house procurement teams, includes the services of audit consultancy, general finance, health and social care and transport and logistics.
Sheena Kocherhans, category manager for professional services at ESPO, said: “Organisations often struggle to find a good consultant so tend to stay with the company they have always used to minimise the risk of appointing anyone new, and avoid a lengthy procurement process. As a result, the contract may not be economically advantageous to the customer.
“Our aim when tendering for this framework was to ensure that we could provide a wide range of excellent consultants across a large number of sectors and for it to become the ‘go to’ route for procuring consultancy services.”
ESPO has received over 250 bids from suppliers wishing to join the framework. Suppliers to the framework include business consultants Ernst and Young, Deloitte, and PwC and infrastructure company Aecom.