2.65 MOD was concerned that if it delayed closing the deal to seek some further concessions from Modus then Modus might walk away from the deal (although Modus, like MOD, had incurred substantial time and costs in developing the deal so may have been reluctant to lose the chance to complete the deal). MOD also considered that there was no guarantee that it could get a better price if the project was retendered to encourage new PFI bids from other consortia.
2.66 Although MOD's PSC probability distribution suggested that, if improvements could be achieved in controlling cost overruns, it might be possible to achieve a lower cost under conventional procurement, this could only be achieved through a significant improvement in public sector project management skills. The likelihood of a substantially cheaper outcome under conventional procurement was never sufficiently great to suggest that MOD should have abandoned its plans of pursuing a PFI solution.