The EPEC PPP Guide has been designed as tool gathering “good practice” sources of information. It seeks to identify the “best of breed” guidance available from PPP guidelines worldwide and from selected professional publications. It is designed to assist public officials responsible for preparing, launching and implementing PPP projects and to facilitate their understanding of the key issues and steps involved in the delivery of PPP arrangements.
The EPEC PPP Guide can be used in a number of ways. For example:
as a broad guide to procurement and implementation issues in PPPs;
as an introduction to the information public procuring authorities should request from their advisers; and
as a starting point to learn more about specific aspects of PPP design.
Each section of the EPEC PPP Guide deals with a “phase” of the PPP project cycle and is broken down into two “stages”. For each stage, key “steps” which the public procurement authority and its advisers need to take are identified. The discussion of the key steps includes the rationale for the step and the key tasks involved.
The EPEC PPP Guide points to sources of guidance which are indicated using the symbol Guidance and are detailed in the dedicated guidance boxes. The guidance boxes contain the title of the publication, its author(s), the date of publication and a brief paragraph explaining the topics covered in the publication. Most guidance sources can be accessed via the internet. For publications that cannot be accessed via the internet (e.g. printed books), the source description includes the ISBN details.
In addition to the sources of guidance, the EPEC PPP Guide contains:
“Know More About” sections in which specific issues are developed in more detail;
“Checklists”, which are included at the end of each stage to remind the user of the key tasks that have to be fulfilled before moving to the next stage; and
A “Glossary” of frequently used terms.
The EPEC PPP Guide has inevitable limitations:
In a rapidly changing environment, new practices develop quickly, making existing ones obsolete. In managing the EPEC PPP Guide, an effort is made to review and recommend the most up to date PPP guidelines and documentation available.
The EPEC PPP Guide is in English. Paper versions of the EPEC PPP Guide are available in other languages here. Most of the PPP guidance currently available comes from countries such as Australia or the United Kingdom – which have extensive PPP experience – or from international organisations, such as the World Bank. Although the language of the guidance may be English, the content often draws on experience from non-English-speaking countries and therefore such sources are applicable to a wider audience.
The EPEC PPP Guide also includes references to available PPP guidance material in non-English-speaking European countries such as France, Germany and Greece. This Guide, however, only references the original language guidance source.
The legal framework in place in a specific country needs to be taken into account when designing a PPP arrangement.
The EPEC PPP Guide does not in any way replace the need for a public procuring authority to take professional advice on legal, technical, financial, environmental and other matters. It should, however, assist them in having a more productive dialogue with their advisers.
