The competent authority reviews unsolicited project proposals to ensure that they are in line with the government's infrastructure investment plans and priorities, and for their commercial viability. PIMAC's review of these project proposals entails a value-for-money analysis, which has three phases: (i) a cost-benefit and policy analysis; (ii) a comparative analysis between a public-sector comparator and the PPP proposal; and (iii) a financial analysis to assess the project cost, user fees, and level of government financial support. PIMAC submits its review to the competent authority and the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
When pursuing an unsolicited project, the competent authority must notify the public about the content of the proposal to allow other parties to submit alternate proposals, and allocate at least 90 days for this to ensure fair competition. Based on the merits of the initial proposal, extra points within 10% of the total evaluation points can be awarded after the review of the value-for-money assessment. The rate of extra points is included in the RFP. The competent authority's evaluation team assesses the alternative proposals and the initial proposal again, and selects a preferred bidder. If no alternate proposals are submitted, the initial bidder is designated as the potential concessionaire for the PPP negotiation phase.