Governments in each jurisdiction will have their individual approval processes for capital investment projects. In addition to these general processes, this policy requires a further approvals process to be followed for:
• all project alliance contracts (irrespective of the value of the alliance contract); and
• any program alliances (including alliances for ongoing operations and maintenance).
Each jurisdiction will have a Minister responsible for alliancing policies and guidelines. Responsibility for the alliancing policy in each jurisdiction will, in most instances, reside with the Treasury or Finance portfolios. Moreover, each alliancing project will be subject to the ultimate responsibility of the relevant Portfolio Minister, unless otherwise decided by government.
The approvals process for each alliance contract (set out in Figure 1) requires the endorsement of the agency's Portfolio Minister and then the approval of the Treasurer (or Minister for Finance as the case may be) at each of the following stages:
• on completion of the Business Case (which may also require Cabinet approvals);
• before the start of formal market engagement activities, tender processes and the public release of tender documents; and
• before executing contracts and any other forms of agreements with preferred alliance parties.
The process also requires the agency to seek the Portfolio Minister's endorsement and then the approval of the Treasurer for:
• any material departures from the Business Case, or from any other project approvals previously provided by the Portfolio Minister, the Treasurer and/or Cabinet; and
• any material departures from this policy and published guidelines (irrespective of the value of the alliance contract).
It is not considered appropriate for an agency to make any internal or public commitment to any infrastructure project (including any proposed alliance project) before the Business Case recommendations and potential methods of delivering the project are evaluated, the procurement strategy is finalised and the required approvals are obtained.
The approvals process required by this policy is shown in Figure 1 at the end of this document.