The Project Committee shall discuss the project technical specifications and financial structure and the contract form with the qualified candidates before issuing bidding requirements. This dialogue shall facilitate the identification of the project technical requirements and the specifications of the service to be provided by the private partner for preparing the bidding requirements in conformity with the project requirements. This dialogue also motivates the qualified candidates to find innovative solutions for the project. The qualified candidates may suggest additional activities complementary to the project, which would reduce the cost incurred by the Federal Entity.
The Project Committee shall conduct a dialogue with the qualified candidates and funders to reach a comprehensive conception to identify the technical requirements, practical means and financial structure to achieve the joint project.
The dialogue is a procedure carried out by the Project Committee with the qualified candidates and funders to get the qualified candidates' opinions and comments on the points and issues that the Project Committee needs to crystallize in order to be able to develop a complete conception of the joint project.
a. Dialogue Preparation
The dialogue shall be carefully prepared by providing the main information accurately and formulating the questions relating to the issues to be discussed clearly. Hiring experienced consultants, especially in the more complicated projects, may increase the dialogue effectiveness and credibility. In such case, it shall be ensured that the consultants are impartial and have no interest in any specific result.
During dialogue preparation, care must be taken to include the following in the dialogue:
• Equality and non-discrimination between the qualified participants, especially non-discrimination in providing information between a qualified participant and another, giving it an advantage over others.
• Transparency, a matter that requires documenting the dialogue properly in respect of the adopted methodology and the points to be discussed. The writing communication with participants may help in the transparent documentation of the dialogue process.
b. Invitation for Participating in the dialogue.
The dialogue phase starts officially with inviting the qualified candidates to participate in the dialogue. This invitation shall explain the committee targets for that dialogue and identifies how to conduct the dialogue. That invitation shall also identify:
• Concerned schedules.
• Dialogue main issues.
• Restrictions that participants shall be aware.
In addition, it is a good practice to hold a public session for all qualified candidates, during which the dialogue methodology shall be explained and the important matters are reported. This session gives the participants a chance to require clarifications about any matter. This matter ensures equality between all participants in dialogue to obtain the same information with the same way. This session would help all participants in planning the various dialogue courses by bringing the appropriate work team for attending it and, if possible. Documents shall be distributed as an agenda to detail and explain the matters to be discussed before any session.
c. Dialogue Structure
There is no specific way to conduct the dialogue. The dialogue may be executed by inviting the qualified participants for an open day to get their opinions, holding individual meetings with each individual participant, or asking the qualified participants to fill a survey form. The Project Committee may detail the process and any related procedure meets its requirements. All participants shall be treated in a transparent and non-discriminating way that ensures equality in treatment.
d. Dialogue Closing
Upon completing the joint project conception from all technical, financial and legal aspects with the project committee, the Project Committee shall notify the participants of dialogue closing and seek to complete the terms of reference. At that point, there will be no room for further discussions.