The other way of viewing the vehicle procurement is that it was being done piecemeal, expensively and with little thought for how maintenance would be done. Having fleets procured from one manufacturer gave IoM government more buying power and efficiency in maintenance and safety checks.
a few years ago individual departments would send out an EO with a Purchase Order to buy a van when needed, there were few if any records kept of maintenance and they were driven till trashed.
fair enough that had improved, but given scale of government purchase you’d expect there to be a fleet manager and synergies in maintenance. Maybe it went too far. But the principle was sound.
on the general topic of Government, the CEOs at the top had gone rogue. There had been so many dirty deals and secrets done it had to be cleared out.