Historically, governments have financed large infrastructure facilities on a current basis, making what often are referred to as "progress payments" to a lead contractor as contract milestones are achieved. In this fashion, the government effectively assumed a significant degree of the risks of project completion and performance. This approach offered few and often ineffective mechanisms for the government to control project costs and complete development in a timely fashion. Proponents of private finance point to the built-in incentives associated with having a contractor's money at risk. In these structures, the team members' participation, as equity providers, is a critical tool in allocating risk because, if the project were to fail, the team would risk losing its entire equity investment. This factor, among others such as performance guarantees, is a strong incentive for the team to bring the project to completion on time and under budget in accordance with performance specifications. This incentive structure has been used under the U.K.'s Private Finance Initiative, which has produced efficiency gains that far exceed the financing benefits associated with government financing (Rodgers 1996).