The Delivery Project Director and senior management of the Responsible Agency must comply with TC15-16: Managing Public Private Partnership (PPP) Contracts in administering PPP contracts.
This section summarises TC15-16. For full requirements, please refer to TC15-16.
TC15-16 requires consultation with the Infrastructure and Structured Finance Unit (ISFU) in NSW Treasury prior to negotiating or agreeing proposed contractual or commercial changes to existing PPP Projects.
This consultation may be formal or informal. Depending on the materiality of the proposed change, limited or no further consultation with NSW Treasury may be required after the initial notification.
NSW Treasury will:
■ provide expert commercial and financial advice, whilst avoiding setting undesirable precedents and avoiding unnecessary deviation from the NSW Treasury Template Project Documents for Social Infrastructure PPPs
■ assist in resolving disputes prior to them escalating
■ assist in retaining external experts if appropriate
■ advise on approval process and the application of NSW PPP policies.
Some proposed changes or events are automatically considered material and will likely require ongoing NSW Treasury consultation and advice, as well as possible Ministerial, Treasurer and/or Cabinet Approvals. These include changes to Conditions Precedent, Planning Approval Conditions, certain refinancing, changes of control, omissions of services, breaches, defaults, step-in and termination events.
Other proposed changes or events may or may not be considered material depending on specific circumstances. These may include changes to project scope, performance issues, disputes, relief and compensation events and changes to the payment mechanism.
In evaluating likely or proposed material contract or commercial changes to a PPP project, Responsible Agencies and NSW Treasury should, at a minimum, evaluate the changes against the following criteria:
■ value for money
■ the benefits and costs of the changes to Government and the private party
■ impact on the State Budget and project affordability
■ the impact on the allocation and management of risks and avoiding creating an undesirable precedents
■ continuing viability of the project
■ external market forces.