Ms Ann Campbell:

We went through the tender process as normal for the sports equipment to kit out the sports facility. In my submission supplier B was the successful bidder for the lease of the sports equipment to DkIT Sport Limited. However, during the final weeks prior to the commissioning of the equipment, the supplier informed us that he was no longer able to meet his obligations. We wanted to rent the equipment from the supplier, but the supplier wanted to lease the equipment to us as in a hire purchase arrangement. As an institute, we cannot borrow. The problem was that this happened just weeks before the opening. We had a contract with the operator by whom 30 people had been employed to run the facility. As the students had already paid their levy, we had a very short timeframe and had to make a decision because of the imminent planned opening and the undertakings given to the students and the operator to purchase instead of renting part of the equipment. The operator purchased some of the equipment and we purchased the rest.