13 In respect of the value for money of the procurement alone, there are inevitable uncertainties in the estimated costs of a PSC, but the Agency has secured, through competition, a PPP with fixed prices and in-built flexibility for a cost similar to the Agency's financial estimate of a conventional project. During the preferred bidder stage, the Agency did not concede either an increase in price, or reallocation of risks. Unlike conventional procurements, a PPP has the potential value for money advantage of transferring risks to the private sector. Some risks have already materialised and have been borne by GeneSYS, rather than by the taxpayer. The relatively short elapse of time since the new services went operational in October 2007 precluded collection of sufficient material for us to judge the value for money of the operational delivery of the services.
14 The overall value for money of the NRTS project depends on how useful the new telecommunications systems prove to be in relation to the Agency's implementation of other projects now enabled by these new systems.