An often-neglected characteristic of P3 projects is the fact that the private sector partner is the project steward with overall responsibility for organizing the work and delivering on the project requirements. This project stewardship feature arises from the structure of the P3 agreement and the presence of private project financing. It is not about private sector versus public sector provision, since the same private sector firms are usually involved in carrying out the work, whether the project is a conventional one or a P3.
In a conventional procurement, the public sector owner has project architects and engineers on site to inspect and approve the work and to initiate payment for acceptable work completed. In a P3, it is the responsibility of an independent certifier to check that the work is delivered according to the contract specifications. This means that the public sector authority no longer has day-to-day responsibility for supervising project delivery, even though it retains overall responsibility and control over the delivery of the project. It is the responsibility of the private sector consortium and its contractors to organize and coordinate their work so as to deliver the project on schedule and in accordance with agreed-upon specifications. The role of private financing is to give the consortium powerful incentives to deliver an asset with long-term sustainability, to expedite the work, and even to complete construction early, in which case the service payments (and any milestone payments) can start ahead of schedule.