Section 10.2.4 highlights that there may be less transparency regarding price and cost in a corporate financed bid where the sub-contracting and financing elements are kept within the corporate group. For example, group overhead costs and return on intra-group loans may be factored into the price in a way which would not be possible in a project financing and the true level of equity return may not be easily ascertainable. The Contracting Authority should try to obtain a level of transparency equivalent to a project financed bid and in doing so should require a financial model as part of the bid submission so that it has sufficient information to understand the bidder's proposed flow of funds and capital structure.
The same applies during the life of the PPP Project. The Contracting Authority will want to ensure that it is able to obtain the same level of financial and technical information that it would expect in a project financing, particularly where relevant to its own liability under the PPP Contract.
As mentioned in Section 7, Confidentiality and Transparency, governments in many jurisdictions are increasingly moving towards greater transparency in relation to public procurement and the use of public funds and this is also a factor in accessing support from multi-lateral agencies. It may therefore also be important from a policy perspective for the Contracting Authority to ensure that a sufficient level of detail is obtainable.