The government party will need to prepare for the end of term at least four years from contract expiry by undertaking the following steps:
1. due diligence - understanding contract expiry conditions/options, asset condition, performance of the private party, lessons learnt from the current contract (including any reviews undertaken);
2. determining future service delivery needs for the relevant sector, and how they are best delivered, including the assets required to support service delivery. Due diligence work from step 1 will help to inform this assessment. This analysis should determine the specific future role of the project assets in meeting these future service needs, including the extent of any necessary modifications or augmentations to the project assets. Options include:
• continuing to use or upgrading / modifying project assets for further use;
• decommissioning or disposing of project assets; or
• developing other short-term contingency service provision options, if there is a risk that the new arrangements are unlikely to be ready in time.
3. gaining the government party's approval and funding for the strategy determined in step 2, and for any additional resourcing required to manage that transition;
4. developing an end of term / service plan to execute the agreed strategy. The plan should include the establishing a governance structure and resourcing to implement the agreed strategy; and
5. implementing the transition to the new arrangements.
Each of these steps is outlined in further detail below.