There are a number of actions / potential changes that could address perceived or real barriers to competition within the Australian PPP market. These changes include:
• a co-ordinated and well known national project pipeline, including where possible repeat projects within particular sectors and a tiering of complexity and size to allow new entrants into the market;
• development of appropriate evaluation criteria to encourage participation by new players (particularly highly skilled/experienced international PPP participants) within consortia, as well as participation by players outside tier one entities for appropriately sized projects;
• publication of evaluation criteria weightings to enable potential consortia better to structure their bids;
• provision of highly skilled Government practitioners (particularly in respect of the project director and key project team members), with a clear governance structure that enables effective and timely decision-making;
• consideration of a reduced number of short-listed bidders invited to participate in the RFP process (i.e. not just the common position to shortlist 3 proponents);
• reimbursement of bid costs if considered appropriate (typically only considered in limited circumstances, for example, on large; complex; and/or specialised projects or where there are multiple bid phases and the assumed benefits from a long competitive process significantly outweigh the compensation to a bidder);
• more fundamental changes to the procurement process, such as mandated contracts, enabling a rapid move to commercial close; and
• a reduction in the bid costs typically incurred via the implementation of potential strategies that improve the efficiency of the PPP procurement process (including structural changes to typical processes, moving quickly to a preferred bidder, etc), as discussed below in section 1.1.1.