As part of the Project Agreement, the Children's Health Partnership must develop and submit for endorsement to the State, a performance monitoring program that encapsulates all of its performance-related accountabilities to demonstrate that services are actually being performed and to prescribed levels (Clayton Utz 2007a: p.14). Although the consortium is responsible for monitoring its own performance, service delivery outputs may be tested / validated by the public partner (and by independent advisors appointed by the concessionaire) via operational records, comparisons with agreed policies and procedures, work plans, user satisfaction surveys and hospital operator audits (Clayton Utz 2007a: p.15). With regard to reporting requirements, consortia must report against each KPI to the Department of Health and the contract administrator once every six months, with its performance against individual KPIs reported as part of every second quarterly performance report (Clayton Utz 2007a: p.21). Moreover, asset management plans and work plans (five year and annual plans) must be prepared in accordance with the Service Specifications and submitted annually to the contract administrator (Clayton Utz 2007b: p.196) as well as any identified risks that may impact on its ability to deliver the services (Victorian Auditor-General 2009: p.75).
During audit of the new Royal Children's Hospital project, the audit team from the Victorian Auditor-General's Office found that a Departmental responsibility - the finalisation of the contract administration manual - had not been completed by the date stipulated in the Project Agreement (which was three months prior to the Stage One completion date) (Victorian Auditor-General 2009: p.76). The audit team recommended (as a high priority) that the Department of Health complete and endorse the manual (Victorian Auditor-General 2009: p.76).