Perhaps one of the greatest skills gaps in municipalities, and one which has been seen to cause great concern to municipalities, is their inability to negotiate contracts and contract amendments with their partners. In those cases in which the partner is an international operator skilled in this process, municipalities often feel exposed and fear an uneven playing field. This inability is particularly noticeable when juxtaposed with skilled negotiators in the private sector.
For this reason, municipalities must heed the advice of PPP advocates, who strongly recommend that the municipal negotiating team should include someone skilled in contract negotiation. As with the appointment of specialists discussed above, municipalities need to have developed knowledge of how to fund, appoint and manage such a specialist technical advisor, and how to formulate and manage a team of officials to implement the process. In taking this step, municipalities must be prepared to listen to the advice given, and must be in a position to judge whether the proposals meet their own objectives. The Gweru case (Box 11.3) provides an account of this process.