3.4 The procurement of the partner was made through an open competition because of the value of the IT services that the partner was to provide. To help them identify parties genuinely interested in partnership, the Agency adopted a prescriptive approach to realising the partnership. This included specifying the means through which the Agency believed they and their partner would achieve an alignment of interests. During the course of the procurement the Agency decided to rely on two principal elements:
■ an obligation on the partner to exploit internationally the Agency's systems and expertise; and
■ an obligation to create, with the Agency, a joint venture company that would exploit the Agency's expertise and deliver IT services to the Agency.
The Agency judged that they would be better able to assess the commitment of each bidder to partnership from its response to these real issues rather than from the bidder's proposals relating to important, but immeasurable fundamentals of partnership such as trust and good interpersonal relationships.
3.5 The intention of the Agency's prescriptive approach was to secure a partner who was prepared to invest in the creation and expansion of a company specialising in providing spectrum management IT products. If such a company were to succeed, the Agency foresaw that the expertise gained by the company could lead to improvements in the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of their IT services. The Agency reasoned that improving the value for money of the IT services would be in the self interest of the partner for the duration of the partnership as the improvements would increase the marketability of the Agency's intellectual property, which would enhance the value of the joint venture company.