Standardized and comparable data are indispensable for valid cross-economy analysis; this is the core principle of Benchmarking PPP Procurement. The set of questions selected for the questionnaire is sent to all of the economies covered. Furthermore, comparability is achieved through use of standard case-study assumptions, which provide a hypothetical scenario that guides local respondents in completing the questionnaire. Use of a standard case study makes data collection easily replicable and can compensate for deep structural differences that could jeopardize cross-economy comparisons. In addition, the case study can easily be applied to a larger set of economies in cost-efficient manner.
| Box 1 Case-study assumptions for Benchmarking PPP Procurement |
| • The private partner (the project company) is an SPVa established by a consortium of privately owned firms, which operate in the surveyed economy. |
| • The procuring authority is a national or federal authorityb in the economy that is planning to procure the design, building, financing, operation, and maintenance of, for example, an infrastructure project in the transportation sector (a highway) with an estimated investment value of $150 million (or the equivalent in the relevant economy's local currency). |
| • To this end, the procuring authority initiates a public call for tenders, following a competitive PPP procurement procedure. The call for tender attracts six bids, including the private partner's bid. The private partner's offer is complete and includes all required documents. It is unambiguous and provides a price quotation free from errors on the part of the private partner. |
| • For section D on unsolicited proposals (USPs), before initiating any procurement activities, the procuring authority receives a USP from the consortium of companies to be integrated in the private partner. |
| a. The special purpose vehicle (SPV)-also known as a special purpose company (SPC) or special purpose entity (SPE), is a company specifically formed to undertake a specific project-in this case, the public-private partnership (PPP) project. |
| b. Except for the cases of Australia and United States, where most of the PPPs are done at the subnational level. There, the study focuses on measuring only the State of New South Wales and the Commonwealth of Virginia, respectively. |