A programme to build 80 police stations in Mexico, that was being managed by Currie & Brown, is to be re-tendered as the government tries to drive down costs

The British consultant was appointed in June last year to mastermind the scheme, which is the first phase of a plan to build 450 stations across the country to crack down on drug crime.

But it is understood that the project stalled late last year after the downturn forced the Mexican government to revisit procurement of public construction programmes.

Currie & Brown, which was overseeing the whole scheme and project managing six stations, was subsequently dropped.

A source close to the project said: “The latest information is they are going to procure it as traditional public work. A lot of projects in Mexico are being re-analysed and repackaged.”

Santiago Klein, who won the police stations project for Currie & Brown , has since moved to McBains Cooper.

The news comes as Currie & Brown was hit by its second high-level departure in a month. It is believed that Jim O’Neill, its head of nuclear, who the firm poached from British Nuclear Group in 2006, moved to Rolls-Royce two weeks ago.