Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

I think the performance is variable. Some colleges have a quite professional procurement service and are procuring competitively on a routine basis. In other cases, perhaps for individual reasons in individual contracts, there may be a legitimate or an acceptable reason for rolling it over. However, where there is non-competitive procurement, it exposes a college or a public body to the risk of a case being taken against it by a bidder or potential bidder who might have wished to submit a tender for a service not being allowed to so do. There is of course also the problem that the college or public body may not be getting good value in the procurement.