3.6  Coordinating with other public sector entities

Managing the contractual obligations of the government party can be complex because of the range of government stakeholders involved in many Partnerships Victoria projects. The government party acting on its own may not be able to fully meet the government's obligations under the project deed (and other project contracts), or to ensure that the benefits of the project are realised. 

The contract director may need to coordinate the actions of other public sector entities in order to ensure the government party:

•  can deliver on its obligations under the project deed; and 

•  does not inadvertently act so as to hinder or prevent the private party from meeting its obligations under the project deed. 

In some projects, performance monitoring obligations may be delegated to another government entity (e.g. from the Department of Health and Human Services as the contract management entity to a local health network operating a hospital). Template J provides an example of a structure for the delegated entity to report to the contract management entity. 

It is important to distinguish between government stakeholders that are, or need to be, part of the governance framework and those that are not. Within government, common good practice involves regular meetings of a steering committee with representatives from multiple relevant government agencies. The steering committee has senior government representation, and is chaired by the senior responsible owner. Its role is to provide strategic guidance to the government party, and to make decisions on the more material project-related matters - referring matters to Ministers as necessary. The project director and contract director report to the steering committee. The steering committee will be established to oversee the procurement phase and the construction phase, and in some cases this will extend into the initial phase of service delivery. It is important to continue the committee, perhaps with revised membership and meeting frequency, during the life of the project. 

In some Partnerships Victoria projects, a government party contracts to receive services ultimately used by multiple public service entities. For instance, the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority is the government contracting party in the Metropolitan Mobile Radio and Mobile Data Network projects, but the end-users are individual emergency services agencies. In such projects, the contract director should enter into a memorandum of understanding or a service level agreement with the other public service entities. This document should set out the roles and responsibilities of each public service entity, the payment obligations and processes, and the communication and consultation processes between the contract director and these public service entities.

In some cases, establishing a reference group to enable effective communication and consultation with other government entities that have a strong interest in the project but are not part of the decision-making process may be warranted.