This Government is committed to the principle of increasing transparency in government and the delivery of public services.
Under SoPC4, the authority is entitled to project and financial information from the private sector project company, to assist in their monitoring and management of the PFI arrangements. However, financial reporting is generally limited to requested information rather than regular periodic reporting, and information provided is generally limited to the project company, and so does not include project owners or sub-contractors.
A lack of financial transparency can be an obstacle to effective asset planning and contract optimisation by the authority. In addition, there is a risk that contracting authorities do not have sufficient clarity or confidence of the ongoing value for money of contractual arrangements.
Question 42: What degree of financial transparency should be adopted for future privately financed and delivered assets and services? Question 43: What are respondents' views on the potential extension of project information requirements to periodic financial reporting and disclosure from project sub-contractors and shareholders, including sub-contractor out-turn costs, project equity transfers and achieved project and equity returns? Question 44: Would a different approach to project governance improve transparency? What if any role should be played by the public sector in the governance of privately delivered and operated projects? |