107. Deplores the fact that, year after year, non-respect of public procurement rules accounts for a large proportion of the errors; sees the wider implications and considers this to be an indication that the functioning of the internal market is at stake; calls on the Commission to pursue the ongoing reform of public procurement taking due account of these worrying results and to follow up on infringements rigorously as the Court of Auditors has also identified cases of incorrect transposition of Union Directives into national public procurement law (Annual Report, point 4.27);

It would be caught and hoisted on its own petard, as it were. There is no legal requirement in the bill for the government to make people aware of a bad product and I think that is wrong.

A genuine mistake will not, of itself, mean that an official will be held financially liable.

The Commission says that as much value for money as possible must be obtained. I want to say, however, that, in this context, it is quite often a question of self-governing local authorities which operate in such a way that, if a mistake is made and people are not satisfied, the latter can replace the decision makers.

But, since 1997, it knew that it was not going to manage it and on that basis the Commission should have started work on an MAGP V which would have eliminated the errors committed so far and, meanwhile, simply extend the MAGP IV. And extension, Commissioner, cannot in any way be used to change the rules of the game which we have had up to now.

Understandable. Slightly too complex (hard to play game, takes too long, etc) or slightly too simple (boring, game ends too soon.)