15.  Contract management

The Partnerships for Growth Policy (December 2002) establishes the policy principles for effective contract management.

An adequately resourced contract management team needs to be established well before the final contract is executed. The team should retain members from the procurement team to maintain a thorough understanding of project objectives and links with the relevant private sector personnel. Over time, membership of the contract management team should change to reflect the movement of the project from construction to service delivery and asset management.

The role of the contract management team is to:

•  monitor project delivery;

•  ensure milestones are met on time;

•  negotiate and manage contract variations;

•  monitor output delivery against performance standards;

•  ensure that there is not a drift of risk allocation back to the public sector; and

•  monitor the ongoing viability of the private partners and identify possible risks to future service delivery.