The procurement of a PPP contract is a major project in its own right. This part shows that while the Agency insisted on high quality standards it did not foresee the extent to which meeting these standards would affect the procurement's budget and timetable.
3.1 The Agency's procurement of the 10½-year NRTS contract took five years rather than the originally forecast two years (Appendix 5). The external advisers' fees of £15.5 million (Figure 18), were five times the original estimate of £3.1 million.