Procuring Infrastructure PPPs 2018 is still refining its methodology. There have been significant changes in the scope of the questionnaire in comparison with last year's Benchmarking PPP Procurement 2017, with new questions added and several others reformulated.
These changes in the survey imply that aggregated scores at the thematic level are not comparable between Procuring Infrastructure PPP 2018 and Benchmarking PPP Procurement 2017. Therefore, changes in the scores should be interpreted with caution because they may be unrelated to regulatory reforms and depend only on changes in the scope of the assessment (and minor corrections from last year's edition).
The questions reformulated or added that are scored in this edition are identified in Appendix 1 with the symbol "+". The main changes in scoring by thematic area are the following:
Preparation of PPPs: Budgeting for PPPs; accounting and/or reporting for PPPs; environmental assessment and methodology; inclusion of assessments in request for proposals/tender documents; online publication of the assessments; and online publication of the tender documents.
Procurement of PPPs: Foreign companies prohibited (negative score); availability of procurement procedures; discretional direct negotiation possible (negative score); pre-bid conference and disclosure of information about it; standstill period and information about the standstill period in the award notification.
PPP contract management: Qualifications of the contract management team; system for tracking progress and completion of the construction works; availability of information on construction to the public and online; two new sub-questions about monitoring and evaluation (regarding performance criteria and abatement of payments); foreign companies prohibited from repatriating income (negative score); approval by an additional government authority in case of renegotiation; two new sub-questions about specific regulations for renegotiation (economic balance and change in the tariff); unilateral modification (negative score if an additional government authority is not required to approve the renegotiation); new sub-questions in the question regarding circumstances of the contract (refinancing and subcontracting); availability of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms (question reformulated).
Unsolicited proposals: Vetting/pre-feasibility analysis.