One of the key steps to be taken by municipal managers is to establish a vehicle for investigation, decision-making and implementation within partnerships. To this end, municipalities frequently establish a special committee, task force or unit tasked with defining and carrying out the steps necessary to bring about a service partnership. Ideally, an integrated team of senior or middle managers will be formed and exposed to alternative options for service delivery, and this team will have some basic training or experience in PPPs. It should also have some training in working together to optimise its outputs.

Typically, this task force will be comprised of skilled representatives able to provide expertise in planning, consultation, tendering, contract design and negotiation, and contract management and monitoring. They should be particularly committed to, and develop skills in, the very process of partnering. A unit similar to this was established in Gweru and in Ankara (see Box 12.6), and has proved to be a useful structural mechanism for establishing PPPs in a municipality. In Ankara, a separate bureau has been established to coordinate new policy initiatives such as partnerships. Staff assigned to this bureau have been trained in private sector participation design, and the bureau has been assigned special powers to work closely with the senior management team in order to avoid lengthy delays in processing documents and approvals that will impact negatively on any private sector operator.

The task force may change in nature and capacity as the process develops. The skills sets needed to undertake the strategic planning and partnership development stages may be very different from those required for the third stage of partnership implementation (see Box 12.3). In focused partnerships, the role of social/community development workers, for instance, will be crucial. In the case of large-scale partnerships, a task force should be underpinned by the expertise of an experienced external advisor.

Inter-departmental coordination for private sector participation design and implementation can be enhanced by working parties to assess alternative private sector participation options and contract types, and technical meetings to assist with planning specifications, documentation etc. These structural mechanisms provide crucial ways of enhancing the task force and the municipal capacity to identify, plan and manage the private sector participation process. They bring together different skills and expertise within the organisation to consider a range of issues such as technical and commercial viability, service performance and quality, pricing and tariff adjustments, employee relations etc. A number of these coordination mechanisms have been successfully introduced into Ankara to enhance private sector participation operations (see also Box 12.6).

Whichever vehicles are adopted, municipalities should seek to achieve consistency and continuity in the PPP management team. They should delegate authority to conduct tasks, establish regular, direct and efficient communication lines to decision-making forums (particularly to elected councils), and ensure the integration of a range of skills at all stages. The process itself will build capacity among the members of the team, creating a more skilled base for future partnership initiatives.