2.9 Once the PFI contract award had been completed in February 1999, the Service re-appointed the advisers, without competition, for a lump sum of £176,000 for post-contract advisory services. This fee excluded some facilities management services and all legal and financial services which would be available on a call-off basis as necessary. The Service ensured that the contract terms for the follow-up work followed the original terms and that the fees were related to those originally approved.
2.10 The Service considered that the existing advisers were the only ones capable of performing the assignment, given their acquired experience and knowledge of the project. This suggests that advisory needs may have been underestimated at the outset. The Service told us it had always been intended to deal with post-contract advice as a separate issue later in the project, given the complexity of the initial brief. Nevertheless, the Service might have given greater consideration to the inclusion of post-contract advisory services in the initial client brief and contract.