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The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has further delayed the award of a 拢7bn tranche of construction contracts, which shortlisted firms have now been left waiting on for as long as three years.

The MoD this week confirmed that six major construction and facilities maintenance contracts, together worth 拢7.1bn, have been hit by further delays of between three and five months. The contracts, procurement on which began as early as December 2010, all have shortlisted bidders and were initially due to be awarded during 2012 in order to be in service by April 2013.

after the MoD to begin the to run the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), which manages the  拢20bn defence estate.

Last month the MoD confirmed the appointment of a Capita-led team to the 拢400m private sector partner role, with the expectation this would prompt the award of the contracts, which are part of the DIO鈥檚 拢9bn suite of Next Generation Estate Contracts (NGEC). However, a DIO spokesperson this week confirmed further delays to the contracts.

The MoD said that despite the long delay, it would continue with the current procurement, rather than start over.

Two contracts 鈥� the  拢1.5bn National Housing Prime and the 拢900m National Training Estate Prime 鈥� which were due to be awarded by March have been put back by three months to May.

This means the three shortlisted bidders for the National Housing Prime (see box below) have now been waiting since August 2011 for the contract award, under which the winning firm will provide repairs and maintenance to more than 49,000 UK military homes.

A further contract - the 拢350m Regional Prime Scotland and Northern Ireland - due to be awarded by January, has been pushed back to May, meaning the four bidders in line for the repairs and maintenance contract will have been waiting a full three years since they were shortlisted in June 2011.

The award of three other contracts - the 拢1.8bn Regional Prime Central, the 拢1.35bn Regional Prime South-west and the 拢1.2bn Regional Prime South-east - has been put back by four months to June.

The DIO spokesperson said the contract award dates had been delayed 鈥渢o take into account the influences and effects of a huge period of change and restructuring for the organisation鈥�.

As well as appointing a private sector business partner the DIO has also been engaged in a massive restructuring programme, after being required to save 拢1.2bn across its operations and reduce its head count from 7,000 to 2,000.

It is understood that the procurement of the private sector business partner 鈥� and the change of operating model this has involved - has been key in the latest delay, with an MoD insider insisting that the DIO would 鈥渘ot be procuring the new contracts effectively if we did not take these factors into account鈥�.

The DIO spokesperson said the in service dates of the contracts would also now be put back, with contracts expected to be in service 鈥渁round six months after contract award鈥�.

The spokesperson said the DIO鈥檚 existing contracts had again been extended to take account of the latest delays.