The Owner is accountable for producing the VfM Report. As covered above, the process for producing the VfM Report commences with the Owner's approved Business Case and relies on a clearly articulated Owner's VfM Statement.
The VfM Report should not be a 'self-analysis' of performance by the alliance and should be prepared in a manner that avoids any conflicts of interest. As observed by others:
'External review of quality assurance and Key Performance Indicators is particularly necessary under Alliances for good project governance'.21
It is therefore expected that the VfM Report will be impartial and be developed on behalf of the Owner independently of the alliance. It is also important for the VfM Report to be independently validated by parties separate from the alliance. Such validation of the VfM Report would usually be undertaken by an expert adviser22 who has been separately engaged by the Owner.
The Project Alliance Agreement should set out the alliance Participants' reporting requirements generally and for the VfM Report.
As the VfM Report is ultimately presented to the Treasurer or the Minister for Finance (as one of the government's representatives), Owners are encouraged to involve Treasury or the Department of Finance in the drafting process.
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21 Manley, K. And Blayse, A. (2004) 'Innovation in the Australian Road Construction Industry - Making Better Use of Resources', New Zealand Institute of Highway Technology, Towards Sustainable Land Transport Conference, Wellington, New Zealand. 21-24 November.
22 An appropriate expert adviser would be a specialist with in-depth understanding of how infrastructure costs are built-up, current market conditions for construction and design and the commercial workings of NOPs in an alliance project. This adviser can be either an external or internal appointment, and in all cases there must be a clear independence from the alliancing outcomes.