As a future alliance Participant, the Owner has both the benefit of and an obligation to interact and collaborate with Proponents prior to and during TOC development.
In so doing, the Owner must fulfil its public sector obligations in protecting the public interest by ensuring it has a thorough understanding of the Proponent(s), their Project Proposal(s) and the additional risk an alliance contract can potentially place on the Owner. This thorough understanding is a prerequisite for accepting any Project Proposal and entering a PAA, and as previously discussed in Chapter 7, to ensure this the Owner needs to address the risk of asymmetry of capability.
To participate effectively, the Owner should plan for senior management interaction and staff participation, both during TOC development and project delivery. As covered in Chapter 8, the Owner needs to carefully plan and properly resource its participation and ensure that this is clearly articulated to Proponents.
Mechanisms and procedures will also be required for the transfer of price information to the Owner's Estimator. The Owner should plan and map a progressive Proposal review procedure that reflects the same level and quality of tender review processes undertaken by contractors, including various degrees of examination by senior management as the estimate is developed.
Prior to the TOC development process commencing, the Owner should have signed-off the involvement and process with the evaluation panel. This may include regular, formal or informal exposure of the Proponent teams to the evaluation panel as well as briefings by Owner's team on their observations. This enables an informed assessment of non-price attributes to be made by the evaluation panel.