Understanding and applying the Private Finance approach to procurement

3.1  The purchasers issued an invitation for potential bidders for the Benefits Payment Card project in August 1994 and the contract was awarded in May 1996. The only other comparable Private Finance deal, the Contributions Agency's requirement for the replacement of the National Insurance Recording System (NIRS2), was advertised in July 1994 and awarded in April 1995.  Such groundbreaking projects face risk and uncertainty associated with the lack of precedent. Such contracts had to be drafted and negotiated from first principles rather than existing templates.