At financial close the financial advisers to the Authority may be more knowledgeable about the Payment Mechanism than the Authority team. If not rectified this could make the Authority over dependent on that adviser in the post close period. Therefore as with the legal advisers mentioned above the Contract Manager should plan to transfer as much of the financial adviser's knowledge as possible and then manage it within the Contract Management Team. This transfer might be achieved through getting the financial advisers involved in the production of the relevant parts of the Contract Management Manual. The process should include the transfer of any models or spreadsheets that the Financial Adviser developed during the procurement.
Even with a very efficient transfer of knowledge at or shortly after financial close there are likely to be issues arising during the Post Close period here external advice may be required. These could include:
• agreeing changes to the financial model as a result of qualifying variations or relief or compensation events or changes in law;
• benchmarking and market testing exercises;
• disputes relating to the Payment Mechanism and/or the indexation provisions;
• calculations of termination payments;
• Refinancing; and
• Guaranteed Minimum Tonnage and Substitute Waste provisions.