Partnership Victoria projects usually have a regular reporting cycle during the service delivery phase in which the private party self-reports to the government party on its performance, the government party conducts its own reviews of the private party's performance, and the government party makes payments to the private party in accordance with the payment mechanism. In most cases, this cycle occurs either monthly or quarterly, although in some projects the private party's performance is measured and reported on monthly but payments are only made quarterly.
If another government party entity (a delegation entity) operates the infrastructure, it may be beneficial for that entity to conduct an initial review of the private party's report. The delegation entity can then provide input to the contract director's reports to senior management and DTF.
In many projects, a regular payment to the private party will require approval at a senior level within the government party. The contract director's reports to senior management must therefore provide all of the information required to satisfy the person with the relevant financial delegation that they should authorise the payment. The reporting process must ensure the payments will be made by the government party within the required timeframes.
For smaller projects, the contract director may have sufficient financial delegation to approve the amount of a regular payment. In these cases, regular reporting to senior management is not a part of the payment approval process. Notwithstanding this, reporting should still occur to keep senior management informed of any performance issues or other material matters concerning the project.
The specific issues that should be addressed in regular reporting to senior management will vary from project to project, but will commonly include:
• project level performance - whether the project is delivering the expected outcomes;
• service performance - how the private party is performing against the KPIs;
• performance trends - how performance is changing over time;
• information in relation to risks borne by the government party; and
• information validating the payment calculations.
Information to assist contract directors in considering how to monitor and report on these issues is set out below. Template H contains a template for developing reports to senior management in respect of these issues.