However sound the relationship between the government party and the private party, service delivery problems will arise. The primary objective is to ensure that problems are recognised and then resolved quickly and effectively. Clear procedures for raising these issues and handling problems should be established. This will ensure that issues are dealt with at the earliest possible stage and at the appropriate level in each organisation. |
The contract director and the private party should work together to establish and agree on issue management procedures acceptable to both parties (consistent with contractual requirements) and these procedures should form part of the contract administration manual. A joint issues log (as discussed in section 4.2) may also be an effective avenue for issues management.
Issues management procedures should incorporate the following:
• Service delivery issues are recorded as they occur, in order to highlight any trends and to help in assessing overall contract performance and value for money. It is recommended that each party add matters to the joint issues log, and that all new and outstanding issues be jointly reviewed regularly by the parties. A sample of headings to use in an issues log (either joint or for internal State issues) is set out in Template F. This can be modified to suit a particular Partnerships Victoria project.
• Effective communication means promptly advising the counterparty directly of major issues before adding to the issues log.
• Approaches and efforts taken to resolve problems should be documented clearly and precisely.
• Escalation procedures should be followed where escalation is appropriate to resolve the issue.
The contract director should collate information on the number and severity of issues, as well as the way they are resolved, during the life of the project. This information should be used to cross-check the accuracy of service delivery performance reports. In addition, trends in the frequency with which service delivery issues arise and the speed and effectiveness of resolving them are a useful indicator of private party performance. Performance reporting and soft indicators of performance are discussed in detail in Chapter 11.
Serious or persistent service delivery issues may trigger a right for the government party to initiate default processes and, ultimately, terminate the project deed. Responses to private party defaults are discussed in detail in Chapter 8.