The two TMCs who will manage all travel for central government departments have been named.
Central government currently uses at least nine TMCs to book travel and accommodation.
In a bid to consolidate travel spend, this will be reduced to just two in 2012, under the scope of the newly formed Central Government Travel Management Service.
The Government Procurement Service (GPS) told ABTN it has appointed Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) to manage all global travel (Lot 1), and Redfern Travel to manage domestic (Lot 2).
The decision of the GPS to appoint just two TMCs has prompted some criticism amongst the business travel community.
Among the comments was that of Mervyn Williamson, joint managing director of Statesman Travel, who said the tender did not encourage smaller businesses to put themselves forward.
A spokeswoman for GPS said, however, that the appointment of Redfern Travel was indicative of the government’s bid to work more with smaller businesses.
“The successful supplier in lot 2 is currently an SME,” she said, “and this procurement demonstrates the government’s commitment to improving access to government business for small and medium sized organisations.”
Andrew Waller, executive VP UK, Ireland and Mediterranean for Carlson Wagonlit, which was unsuccessful in its bid for the domestic travel tender, has spoken of his concerns about the appointment.
He said: “I am proud of what CWT has achieved in the UK for the public sector over the past 15 years. Together, we developed travel programmes that delivered very significant savings, met sustainability targets and successfully moved transactions online.
“In my experience, one of the key decision factors in procurement of large contracts is the ratio of the value of the contract relative to the turnover of the potential supplier, in order to limit exposure to risk. I am surprised, therefore, at the decision of the Government Procurement Service in this respect.”