9.  Public sector comparator

A preliminary public sector comparator (PSC) should be developed before issuing an expression of interest (EOI), and should be fully updated before accepting responses to the call for detailed proposals.

The Government is flexible about disclosing a summary of a PSC in tender documents. Disclosure is more likely where it will obviously assist the private sector's bid preparation process and result in higher quality and better value bids to the Government. The results of the PSC will ultimately be publicly available in the contract summary.

The national guidelines currently provide detailed guidance on constructing PSCs for social infrastructure and on the discount rate applied for social infrastructure projects. This excludes the use of the discount rate in cost benefit analysis associated with the investment decision.

Consistent with the national guidelines, PSCs for NSW social infrastructure will be constructed as a cash-flow model under traditional delivery methods because, unlike economic infrastructure, social infrastructure is primarily funded by payments from the Government.

The NSW Guidelines also provide high level guidance on constructing PSCs for economic infrastructure. PSCs for economic infrastructure projects will usually be developed on a project financed basis. The project delivery vehicle will normally be assumed to be a special purpose vehicle operating under the State Owned Corporations Act (NSW) 1989.

NSW Treasury is responsible for advising on the value for money aspects of private financing arrangements, including the development of the PSCs. Treasury will assist agencies throughout the project development process and provide advice on technical issues, such as discount rate to be used in constructing PSCs.

Further information can be found in Chapter Seven of the WWG Guidelines.