Letters: Tram question

I WANT to pose a simple question regarding Edinburgh’s Tram Project (a question equally applicable to just about any major public works you could mention):

Where were the contractual penalty clauses?

No business commits to a multi-million-pound project without penalty clauses, so why should the taxpayer? There should be no need for “contingency funds”, which the council reassures us have not been spent. A proper, professionally drawn-up contract offers carrot-and-stick: penalties for failure, rewards for early delivery.

Can anyone at the city council, or in Holyrood, or even those in Westminster, tell me and the rest of the electorate: why they are incapable of writing a contract with penalty clauses.

BRIAN McNEIL

Albert Street

Edinburgh