According to Partnerships Victoria (2001a: p.172), a key objective of contract management is to ensure that private obligations are met for the full contract term. Although considered as a last resort (Partnerships Victoria 2001a: p.172), contract termination can be enforced if an operator fails to meet its contractual responsibilities (Partnerships Victoria 2001a: p.25). In such situations, long-term government funding commitments and priorities may be put at risk unless an alternative service provider is found.
As the public partner is ultimately accountable for the continued delivery of services under these circumstances, it can attempt to mitigate this risk by putting contingency plans in place (Partnerships Victoria 2001a: p.35; Edwards et al 2004: p.66). Although this may seem an obvious thing to do, particularly in light of examples where operators have been placed into receivership (due to the knock-on effects of over-optimistic traffic estimates, for instance), research into the evaluation of PFI operations in the UK, shows that these types of plans are not always evident, in practice (Edwards et al 2004: p.9).