16. Procurement Planning. A Gantt chart should have been constructed that includes all key PFI stages and activities. A model of such a Gantt is at Annex A.
17. Public Sector Comparator. An agreed Public Sector Comparator should be defined and costed representing what MOD would do if it was not to proceed under PFI.
18. Commercial Feasibility. If there was any doubt regarding the likely interest of the market in a PFI opportunity of the type being proposed (and note that the PFI market is neither especially predictable nor consistent) a commercial feasibility study should have been undertaken. This should have sought the views of a selected sample of the market on their interest in the provision of the services required and any complications they foresee to the delivery of a cost-effective service under PFI (risk transfer, interfaces and other dependencies, third party revenue etc.).
19. It should be recognised that the uncertainties inherent in the scope, solution and costs of a PFI service at this stage will rarely provide a clear demonstration of the vfm advantage of PFI. The best that is normally achievable is a clear rationale for why PFI could deliver improved vfm supported by an investigation of other feasibility drivers and any potential showstoppers.
20. Communication and negotiation. A process for managing, recording and co-ordinating communication between the project team and the suppliers throughout the procurement needs to be outlined and internal resources identified and assigned. This should take account of the fact that the suppliers could require discussions with a large number of stakeholders. Projects of a significant size will probably require dedicated liaison staff to control the flow of information to and from each of the bidders.
21. Scaling and baselining. Depending on the nature of the service being provided, it may be necessary to provide - or be in a position to provide - the bidders with volumetric data defining the size of the operation and the number of times certain processes are carried out over a given period of time. This not only provides the bidder with a basis for costing the service provision - minimising the scope for including contingencies - but can also provide a baseline of the current operation against which service performance and improvements can be measured.
22. Data Room. A mechanism should be set up to provide bidders with access to any document referred to in the ITN or any other information that is considered to be of potential value. This is often best achieved by organising a data room which individual bidders can book time in. All documents provided in the data room should be made available with the understanding that MOD is not warranting the information in any way.