Mr. David O'Sullivan:

In relation to that part, you are actually allowed use it. One of the principles of public procurement is around transparency. Once the competitions are advertised, if all the contractual clauses and penalty clauses, and the scope of work, are made clear, then it is allowable. There is a difference between what is allowable in public procurement, what is understood in public procurement and, in some cases, the application of public procurement rules. The EU has also recognised that because public procurement has become more challenging, and there a lot of expectations on it in terms of green and social considerations, there is a need for some practitioners to be upskilled to ensure they are applying the rules in the way these are actually done.

It is also important to remember that public procurement is not just a rules-based system. It is also the commercial acquisition of goods and services. There has to be commensurate focus on those commercial requirements, including penalty clauses and payment clauses, and including robust scopes of work with timelines that actually allow for that.