There is a growing interest among governments to consider public-private partnerships (PPPs) for the possibility of bringing in new debt and equity sources of financing for funding public infrastructure needs that are paid back from the cash flow generated by the project when it becomes operational. PPP projects might take 5 to 20 years to repay their project finance. Those government agencies need to have robust and reliable PPP projects performance reporting to provide an auditable trust-worthy status of those projects’ milestone dates, attaining the agreed upon Key Performance Indicators (KPI), issues that need to be resolved, and disputes that need to be settled among others.
Although using a Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb will enable those government entities or authorities as well as the concessionaire to manage, monitor, evaluate and report on the performance of all project management processes need for PPP projects delivery including scheduling, financial, schedule, communications, risk, issues, quality, safety among other aspects, nevertheless, some government entities or authorities would like to start with a quick solution to provide a single version of the truth oversight reporting for their PPP projects’ performance. The document developed by the PPP Cell, Infrastructure Division, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India was used to provide an example of such a progress report.
Using the same PMWeb platform, a custom form will be created to enable the project team who will be assigned to report the PPP project performance. The customs form will include different tables to capture the needed progress information. Two fields will be common for all those tables which are the Responsibility and Status fields for which the values for those fields will be predefined in a list to enable selecting the relevant value from those lists. The first table will be the PPP key milestone dates status. The table will have the PPP project stages and sub-stages predefined along with the original baseline milestone date. At the end of each project progress period, the assigned project team member will provide the target or forecast completion date with an “A” indicator if the data was the actual date. In addition, there will be a field to add remarks on why there was a change in the actual milestone completion date.
It is highly recommended to attach the updated project schedule reports and other documents that provided the basis for reporting the current status of those milestone dates. Those documents will be uploaded and stored in the PMWeb document management repository where a folder will be created for each reported progress period.
In addition, the report will include tables to report the status of activities that are the authority’s responsibility as well as the status of activities that are the concessionaire’s responsibility. The reported data in those two tables will include detail of the activity, status, responsibility, planned and target or actual date, the reason for the delay, and action to complete the activity. The report will also include a table to provide details of payment receipts, payment mechanisms, and escrow account operations.
The report will also include additional five tables to report on other aspects of the PPP project. These include the status of required project approvals, the status of PPP project performance KPIs, performance concerns, issues that need resolution, and the status of disputes. The common field for all those tables is the responsibility field to ensure accountability for all reported actions and events. Similar to all other reported performances or events, supportive documents need to be uploaded and attached to the progress form.
The preparation and provision of the data for the PPP performance report will involve multiple project team members with different roles and responsibilities. Accordingly, the tables that are part of the PPP performance report will be assigned to their relevant project team member to complete. This is achievable in the PMWeb custom form builder which allows assigning who can view, edit or view edit the data included in those tables as well as other fields included in the PPP performance report.
In case there is a need to have a predefined sequence for completing the PPP performance report including the final review and approval of what has been reported, PMWeb workflow will be used to map those steps, the duration allotted to each step, and the project team member who has been assigned the step. This will provide an auditable trustworthy track record of reported performance for the complete PPP project life cycle stages and sub-stages.
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with more than 35-year service record providing project management and controls services to over 100 projects with a total value of over US $5 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education, and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, Telecommunication, and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training, and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker on topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management, and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 35 years, he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South America. He has written more than 250 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP), an Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE), and a Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Master’s in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – from Kuwait University, Kuwait, and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA, and London Business School, London, UK.