All participants in PPP bidding processes want a process that is fair. Potential bidders will be reluctant to invest in a bid if they are not confident that the process will be fair. Reduced participation in bidding processes will adversely affect government's ability to achieve the best value for money outcomes.
Consortium members also wish to ensure that the participation of other members of their consortium, or related companies of those other members, in a competing consortium will not result in their confidential bid information being shared with the competing consortium or otherwise adversely affect their own competitiveness.
Finally, both the successful bidder and government wish to avoid situations that could result in a disgruntled losing bidder seeking a court order stopping the award of the contract based on the unfairness of the bidding process.
Accordingly, all parties have an interest in having adequate processes governing interactions between government and bidders, access to information and the participation of companies within competing consortia, to ensure the fairness and competitiveness of the bidding process.
That said, government also wishes to obtain the best possible bids. Workshops at which bidders can seek clarification of government's requirements and preferences, and road test potential solutions without their ideas being shared with other bidders, can greatly assist bidders in developing better proposals. These workshops can be conducted on a confidential basis with individual bidders, without being unfair to other bidders. There have been occasions, however, where such interactions have been unnecessarily restricted out of concerns they could be unfair. But fairness can be maintained by giving all bidders equal opportunity to have such interactions. Relevant information which government volunteers to one bidder should be given to all bidders, but information given to one bidder in response to a confidential question need not (unless another bidder asks a similar question, in which event it should receive an equivalent response). If meetings or workshops are held, and each bidder gets as much time with the government's project team as the bidder wants, there is no need for each bidder get the same amount of time.
Governments need to better educate their bid managers and PPP project directors on how fruitful interactions can be managed without prejudicing the fairness of the bidding process. The guidance issued by Partnerships Victoria, and subsequently by Infrastructure Australia, on this topic is a good start.