As alluded to above (see 'Organisational culture'), a concern is raised about aspects of public sector departmental oversight e.g. where PPP working committees (PT14 and PF09) could be more supportive of the contract management function (PF07) by recognising that in order to obtain better VfM outcomes, contract management teams should be provided with adequate resources (such as providing greater funding for employing suitably qualified staff to fulfil contractual requirements who have the ability to respond appropriately to strategic risks and opportunities (PT03)) in addition to managing routine contract management functions. Not only is this an inter-departmental concern with respect to providing the right level of funding for their contract management teams, it also extends upwards to commitment and support from treasury and finance departments that approve agency budget allocations. In discussing public partner under-resourcing, PF04 implicitly points to a possible source of power imbalance between PPP partners:
"We put in a lot of resources into doing the deal and you know that the private sector company in the operational phase has its lawyers, its accountants and it is very conscious of its cost structures and all that, and we're trying to manage with relatively cheap junior staff and without lawyers and accountants backing you up... [we cannot afford those types of] resources".
In contrast, PT10 offers a different perspective:
"In the first year of operations, the commitment was 100 million dollars to the private partner for service, for maintenance and for the assets being delivered. We should be managing that with quality resources and we should have funding for the right personnel to do it".
Several participants (PF03, PF04, PT05, PF08 and PF07) emphasise that Australian departments of treasury and finance ought to engage more and provide better levels of support and funding to host departments (i.e. the client) for contract management. Reality might dictate that choices are made in terms of budget priorities, but if genuine VfM outcomes are to be achieved, suitable resources must be allocated to PPP projects (that have already been committed to) for increasing the likelihood that services will be delivered as intended and that expectations, as set out in business cases, are met. The other side of the coin is that public departments that manage PPPs have a responsibility to accurately relay information about the nature of "the business" to the relevant treasury and finance departments in order to improve informed decision-making for the allocation of future expenditure lines (PT05).