11  COMMITMENT OF THE AUTHORITIES AND CONTRIBUTIONS

11.1  The Authorities agree and undertake to commit to the Project in accordance with the terms of this Agreement and not to commission and/or undertake any procurement and/or project that seeks or would procure the delivery of all or any part of the PFI Project outside the terms of this Agreement unless and until it shall have withdrawn from the Project in accordance with Clause 15 (Withdrawal during the Procurement Exercise).

11.2  The costs associated with providing internal resources in relation to the Procurement Milestones shall be borne by the Authority providing that internal resource. However any additional and external costs required shall be financed by equal contributions from the Authorities.2

11.3  Each Authority shall be required to prepare accounts including details of any expenditure incurred pursuant to Schedule 8 (Heads of Expenditure) ("the Accounts") in respect of each Accounting Period and for such further and/or other accounting periods as the Project Board shall determine and which shall be incorporated into Schedule 7 (Accounting Periods).

11.4  The Authorities shall: 

11.4.1  in the Accounts make true and complete entries of all relevant payments made during the previous Accounting Period

11.4.2  within 5 days of the end of each Accounting Period, Z Council and Y Council provide to the Project Director unaudited Accounts for such Accounting Period together with certification that such Accounts comply with Clause 11 (Commitment of the Authorities and Contributions).

11.4.3  each nominate an individual to be responsible for ensuring that Authority's own compliance with this Clause 11 (Commitment of the Authorities and Contributions) and the name, address and telephone number of each individual nominated pursuant to this Clause 11.4.3 (Commitment of the Authorities and Contributions) shall be notified to the other Authorities in accordance with Clause 30 (Notices); and 

11.4.4  X Council shall within ten (10) Business Days of receipt of the Accounts submitted by Z Council and Y Council in accordance with Clause 11.4.2. (Commitment of the Authorities and Contributions) prepare a reconciliation statement identifying the payments made by each Authority and the balance due from or owing to each. X Council shall within thirty (30) Business Days of the preparation of the reconciliation statement send out relevant balancing invoices or credit payments to the relevant Authority. An Authority receiving an invoice for payment shall pay it in full within thirty (30) days. 

11.5  If an individual nominated by an Authority pursuant to Clause 11.4.3 changes, that Authority shall notify the other Authorities forthwith of the replacement nominees.

11.6  The Authorities hereby agree that if one of the Authorities carries out any work or incurs any cost or expenses or requests the Project Team (or any member of the Project Team) to carry out any Work or to incur any cost or expense that is not envisaged by the Project Director to be an efficient use of time and/or resources, that matter shall, at the discretion of the Project Director, be referred to the Project Board for a decision as to whether such work, cost or expense is part of the Project or whether such work, cost or expense should be the entire responsibility of the Authority so carrying it out or requesting it (as the case may be).

11.7  The Authorities hereby agree that if one of the Authorities believes it is likely to incur disproportionate internal resource costs pursuant to Clause 11.2, that matter shall, at the discretion of the Project Director, be referred to the Project Board for a decision as to whether such costs will be disproportionate and whether any contributions should be made to this cost by the other Authorities.




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2  Authorities will need to make provision in the terms of reference of the project board for the meeting of the board administrative costs. This could be a simple sharing of the costs equally, the meetings could be held at each authority in turn and borne by the host on an in kind basis or could be part of an authority's contribution to the project.