Effective communication is imperative to maintain a positive relationship between the parties to the PPP contract and with third party stakeholders, working towards shared benefits. The Procuring Authority should establish a communication strategy and plan from day one. The Procuring Authority should design and implement a communication strategy to address communication requirements with all relevant project stakeholders. This is important across all stages of a project.
The Procuring Authority should define:
• All of the stakeholders with which it needs to regularly communicate with, as well as the stakeholders' roles and interests
• The frequency and type of communication needed with the Project Company and other key stakeholders, including the community, end-users and other government agencies
• The level and nature of the input required from the Procuring Authority's team with regard to each relationship
• The level of support which can be provided at central government level and from other industry bodies or regulators, and how to manage those relationships
• Reporting requirements to central government and any regulatory body
The communication strategy should include an awareness campaign, regular progress updates, mitigation measures for any issues affecting end-users and/or the community, crisis communication procedures, clear protocols for responding to queries from the public and media enquiries and a dedicated website for disseminating key controlled messages.
It is also important that communication within the Procuring Authority team takes place regularly. The senior management team should be aware of the state of the relationship between the contract management personnel and their counterparts, and the messaging at all levels should be consistent.
EXAMPLE Communication over a large area A project in North America involved work on 20 separate sites, which were spread over a large geographical area. Communication between the different teams was vital to avoiding disagreements escalating into disputes. |