The asset maintenance plan is one of many plans that must be submitted, and accepted, by the government party prior to commercial acceptance. The private party is required to provide an asset maintenance plan that sets out the planned frequency of routine preventative maintenance and refurbishment activities over the life of the project.
The asset maintenance plan is usually prepared by the builder, with responsibility for subsequent updates resting with the facilities management subcontractor and it should be a detailed and highly project-specific document.
As such, it is important for the project director to carefully review the draft asset maintenance plan before accepting it, to ensure that the scheduled activities address the full range of assets for which the private sector party has maintenance and lifecycle responsibility, and to ensure that any assumptions and exclusions mentioned in the plan are consistent with the project deed. Generally, the asset maintenance plan should also provide detail on the facilities management system to be used, the detailed reporting templates to be used and the frequency that these will be provided to enable the contract director and contract management team to monitor project assets over the project term.
There is a tendency for builders to leave preparation of the asset maintenance plan until too late, and not have it ready at commercial acceptance. This is not acceptable. Given the importance of the asset maintenance plan to ongoing fitness for purpose of the project assets, the project director should set a clear expectation early in the construction phase that the asset maintenance plan must be delivered in a timeframe that allows sufficient time for review by the procurement team - and specialist advisers, if required - and resubmission as necessary prior to the expected date for commercial acceptance.