1 The objective of this study was to examine the Agency's procurement of the PPP contract for the NRTS. We planned to examine the processes used by the Agency to gain assurance that the deal it was pursuing would be value for money.
2 To scope the study, we:
■ identified issues from our published documents: A Framework for evaluating the implementation of Private Finance Initiative projects: Volumes 1 and 2; and Examining the value for money of deals under the Private Finance Initiative;
■ interviewed the Agency's project manager and advisers from Hyder and KPMG; and
■ conducted an initial review of the Agency's project files.
3 From the scoping work, we identified a number of issues that we then analysed. We found that the issues logically fell into two high-level, chronologically ordered sets:
■ Was there a real need for the new services?
■ In procuring the NRTS, did the Agency get a good deal?