marek, you are right caretaker does not stop normal BAU...

marek, you are right caretaker does not stop normal BAU functions. it stops incoming govts being beholden to expenditure over their term. potentially harmful expenditure/commitments.

since the odcs normal operation is to grant licenses there is nothing stopping this..

however, there may be potentially political motives. I.e if there's evidence of a bottleneck can they use that for leverage for new funding. win/win for dept and new govt.

or simply they can "postpone" stuff into the next govt and look good to their new masters. win/win and thereby hope to secure additional funding.