Mr. Robert Watt:

There is definitely an issue concerning performance management. I am talking about a contract being managed. It is about documenting this process and sharing information if a party is not eligible. We must think about litigation in this regard. If I say something did not go well, the contractor could blame me for the fact that the contract did not go well. There could be an accusation that the design was not good enough or there were not enough specialist staff. Even establishing the extent to which a party performed adequately can tie us up in law. That is even before concluding a party has not performed and putting this on a register that other public bodies could use to exclude somebody. We are very mindful of this but it is a legal minefield.

Much has to do with the way the directive is written. We would like more flexibility to say that if we did not have a good experience with a contractor, it would not get the next job but we cannot do it. We cannot exclude somebody like that. It is very difficult but the Senator's point is a good one. This is not straightforward.