A fundamental cornerstone of alliancing is that traditional contractual legal protections (as in the Australian Standard 4300 'General Conditions of contract for design and construct contracts') are traded by the government (or by the government through its agency) in exchange for Non-Owner Participants bringing to the project their good faith* in acting with the highest level of 'integrity' for the 'best interests of the project'.
Public sector agencies require a thorough understanding of the key risk areas they are exposed to when entering into alliance contracts. That is, those areas where the agency may be viewed as 'trading-off' its usual rights under traditional project delivery models in return for the actual or perhaps perceived benefits of an alliance arrangement. This guidance note seeks to raise awareness in relation to these trade-offs.
As with any procurement strategy, various trade-offs (of a legal and/or commercial nature) are to be expected in response to changing circumstances, however, these must be understood in specific projects in order for:
• an informed decision to be made in relation to the appropriateness of a proposed procurement strategy; and
• to consider whether those trade-offs can be or should be avoided, managed or mitigated.