In PFI and PPP, most contracts have been written to suit partnership working, but what happens when the partnership element is no longer there?

It appears that the toll of poor performance audits, staff changes and tighter budgets has put an all time strain on partnership working. Should we just accept that this is the way it is now? Adversarial meetings, slow progress on projects, the scrutinisation of every ounce of data and high staff turnover due to toxic working environments?

In a situation where there is more than one stakeholder at play it is always easier to focus on the failures of others and pass on all the blame to them. IN doing so though are you confident that your party is completely free of blame at the same time?

Project Co/SPV….you can’t be to blame can you? You just have poorly performing FMCo’s and troublesome tenants. You pass ALL your obligations down to contractors so what could you do wrong? Surely you are just caught in the middle? I mean, you have been conducting thorough monitoring of FMCo’s since project start eh? You always make quick and fair decisions based on the contract to avoid unnecessary conflict? And, you have always had a balanced team of both commercial and technical/operational competencies well versed in all the contractual obligations? You would never act as a middle man or postbox and just pass correspondence from one party to another, you always review it thoroughly and only send on when you feel it satisfactory meets it’s requirements to avoid frustrations from other stakeholders?

FMCo’s (Soft and Hard) Well it can’t be you to blame. You guys and girls have not changed how you’ve operated since the start. It’s everyone else that’s changing the rules. No one ever wanted to get contractual before so why are they doing it now? There’s a load more rules and not enough time in the day to deliver everything. I mean these new rules can’t just be obligations that you should have been delivering on since the start can they? Recent audits can’t be finding significant failures in compliance and obligation delivery?…..and why are they even necessary?….you produce a monthly report which clearly highlights any failures or risks! You were reporting on these failures long before the auditors came in right? Why does no one trust you now?

And local authorities/public sector entities it definitely can’t be you? You have had to go over and above to identify poor performance and highlight issues. Everyone else has let you down but you are not letting that cloud your judgment on how you deal with things going forward. You’re now scrutinising everything (as you rightly should after poor audit scores) but in doing so you are understanding of the additional strain that puts on SPV’s and FMCo’s? You are open to improvement plans to drive forward performance even if the last two plans have failed.  You actively manage the building users and provide training and updates to ensure damage and misuse is at a complete minimum as to not lead to additional reactive works for FMCo’s and mitigation for SPV’s?

With so much blame and not enough reflection it’s hard to see how we can get partnership working back? I’m going to put it out there that perhaps all stakeholders are a little bit to blame. Some more than others I would like to say and I appreciate the frustrations, BUT, if we all look to how we as a stakeholder are performing and reacting we might stand a chance.

• SPV’s it’s time to get hands on.  Scrutinise FMCo’s regularly but establish set times and manage expectations.  Don’t save everything up for once a year!  FMCo’s only perform as bad as you allow them to.
• FMCo’s review what and how you deliver.  Use your data better to be proactive rather than reactive.  Use the data to actively manage and communicate to other stakeholders.  TRANSPARENCY leads to TRUST.  And for the love of god please tighten up your audit trails!!!!!
• Local Authorities/Public Sector Entities I know you are frustrated and feel let down but there is still quite a lengthy concession to go on some of these projects.  Partnership won’t be possible without you!  Be open to improvements.  Feedback is key, communicate what you need to see for stakeholders to earn back your trust. Don’t just communicate the failures, communicate the positives too. 

I’m refusing to believe that partnership working can’t make a comeback. Without collaboration and open dialogue among all stakeholders we can’t rebuild trust and achieve positive outcomes! Naive as it may sound, in the current climate I think that if everyone puts as much effort in to making changes for improvements as they do in trying to apportion blame, then we are on to a winner!