However, we found that DET had not as yet completed work on a Contract Administration Manual.
In 2003 DET's advisors recommended that it prepare a Contract Administration Manual to:
■ specifically identify the Government resources and roles needed for contract monitoring
■ specify the actions needed to ensure that the Contractor's reporting obligations were fulfilled
■ ensure the performance monitoring and reporting strategy for the project is properly implemented and coordinated with overall contract administration.
The advisors also recommended that other tasks should be undertaken to supplement this and provide early warning of potential problems. For example, external information such as news articles and publicly available financial information on the consortium members should be used to supplement the reporting obligations of the contractor. The purpose is to identify early negative circumstances that could potentially impact on the financial health of the project, management quality, service performance and Government's relationship with the contractor.