3.1.1 Procurers should make use of appropriate professional advisers where their skills are likely to add value to the procurement exercise. In general, the circumstances in which the appointment of PFI/PPP advisers might be considered by a procuring department are:
• when identifying or scoping the feasibility of a potential PFI project. Advice at this early stage may be strategic as well as operational, giving advisers the opportunity to propose alternative methods for achieving objectives. Importantly, however, the objectives themselves should remain the procuring department's responsibility (see the Treasury's "Green Book" - August 1997). At this pre-project stage, there should be no assumption that those appointed initially will automatically be appointed for subsequent PFI procurement work.
• when undertaking the procurement of a PFI project. To assist procuring departments in guiding potential projects through the PFI process (see the Taskforce's "Step by Step Guide to the PFI Procurement Process" - April 1998).
3.1.2 Procurers should consider and document at the outset all the skills inputs which will be required during the procurement. They should also consult their departmental PFUs, and possibly other organizations who have carried out similar projects, to satisfy themselves that all the inputs that they may need have been identified.
3.1.3 Advisers should be selected through competition (see Section 4.1 on EC Rules). The advice of in-house procurement and legal staff should be sought in relation to the need for, and the nature of, advertisements. Care should be taken to ensure that the ability of the procurer to award a contract by competition is not prejudiced by any earlier involvement of an adviser. The National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee have expressed concerns that failure to introduce proper competition for the appointment of advisers in such circumstances is contrary to good practice, unfair and imprudent.
3.1.4 The wider commercial perspective offered by external PFI advisers is unlikely to be available in-house. However, no procurer should rely exclusively on external advice. With all appointments, procurers should, first, bear in mind the in-house expertise available before considering the precise role to be played by external advisers. It is a waste of time and money to appoint external advisers who simply replicate what is already available, as it is to appoint an overqualified organisation for relatively routine functions.
3.1.5 There may also be opportunities for the transfer of skills so that in subsequent procurements there is less dependence on external advisers. For example, an assignment might be completed with the preparation of guidance notes and suitable training programmes for in-house staff where they take over responsibility for work previously undertaken by external specialist advisers. Departmental PFUs should be consulted routinely on the need and scope for external specialist advice.
3.1.6 At the earliest possible stage, accurate budgets should be prepared for advisers' costs. Good advisers will be stifled if they are badly managed, and costly if not managed at all (see Section 6).