The guidance above describes the need to consider the nature of the role that the Procuring Authority is required to play in managing the relevant PPP contract. These considerations, and the subsequent decision whether to take an active or passive approach to contract management, play a key role in determining the appropriate size of a contract management team.
There is no set formula for the size and structure of a Procuring Authority contract management team. It can vary from a couple of individuals to more than 50, depending on the complexity of the contract and the project and the level of involvement of the Procuring Authority.
Most commonly, the contract management team will comprise a small number of permanent staff (fewer than 10, and often fewer than five). A well-managed PPP may deploy a small core team, which relies on the professional expertise and support provided by other departments within the Procuring Authority, central PPP unit and/or external advisors.
Projects will rarely exist in isolation, and some broader consideration is required by the Procuring Authority when determining the size of the contract management team. Other relevant considerations are detailed below, including whether there is external support that can assist.
EXAMPLE Procuring Authority team structures around the world In Sao Paulo, Brazil, individual PPP contracts generally require the creation of a dedicated Procuring Authority contract management team. A central PPP taskforce includes PPP professionals, such as lawyers, engineers and economists, as well as administrators with PPP experience who help address key contract management challenges such as renegotiations or rebalancing. In the Philippines, the PPP Center provides legal, technical, and financial expertise to the Procuring Authority. The PPP Center also helps the Procuring Authority in setting-up and implementing its monitoring regime. This spares the Procuring Authority from having to hire the additional skills needed for setting-up and managing PPP contracts. The Procuring Authority team remains mainly technical. For highway projects in Colombia, the Procuring Authority, the Colombian National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) creates a team to manage a road project which may consist of around nine people, including specialist legal and financial expertise, as well as having access to a more specialized legal team which sits across around 40 projects. In Scotland, the Scottish Futures Trust, a public company, provides legal and financial expertise in setting-up a project. It remains involved at a higher level during the construction and operations phases to provide any assistance when necessary. The Procuring Authority team is mainly technical with operations phase monitoring performed at a regional level rather than having a team dedicated to each project. |