Public sector must share PFI expertise, warn MCG

The Major Contractors Group (MCG) has called on the public sector to make better use of its Private Finance Initiative (PFI) expertise.

Speaking at the Public Private Finance Congress today (Tuesday, MCG Director Stephen Ratcliffe said a mechanism needed to be found to capture the experience gained from the 600 or so PFI deals already struck.

Ratcliffe paid tribute to the success of  PFI as a procurement tool and highlighted a range of measures to improve the process, including the public sector harnessing its PFI expertise and accepting a greater degree of design standardisation.
 
He said that, historically, PFI had worked best with the Highways Agency and Prison Service as clients. Projects were negotiated by dedicated and experienced teams which had the advantage that many of the issues had been encountered in previous contracts. 

Ratcliffe added: “However, the dominant PFI procurers are health and education where there is a very different picture. There are over 600 NHS Trusts and 140 Local Education Authorities.  These are the decision-making procurement bodies. Many of them will embark upon PFI projects once in a working generation and the ability - and indeed incentive - to build up and share collective experience is therefore limited.”