Over the past years, much publicity has been generated with regards to “issues” regarding PPP-projects. Although all PPP-projects in The Netherlands have been completed on time, delivering the required quality within the government’s budget, rumour has it that in many of those projects the contractors involved did not end up very happy, suffered losses and logged disputes against the authority. Obviously, that is not a situation in the interest of both the public and the private sector. Doesn’t everyone involved want to achieve projects being completed within the following objectives: within time, within everyone’s budget (including a fair profit), according to the required specifications, without (or with minimum) hindrance to the environment and stakeholders and without disputes.
In this session the audience, interactively, will discuss to what mechanisms could be adopted in the execution of PPP-projects to improve performance of the projects for all parties involved, achieve the objectives and still comply with the recommendations of the Audit Office.
The session format is as follows: after the opening words, our chairman of IPFA Netherlands, Arent van Wassenaer will introduce the breakout sessions. The purpose of the break-out sessions is to discuss collaborative techniques applied over the world in order to reduce disputes and maximise project outcomes. Each break out session will be moderated. Each table will have 60 minutes to discuss and to come up with recommendations for future use in Dutch PPP projects. Each table will need to report back. The reports will be collated and shared between all participants, and the relevant Dutch authorities.
The agenda is outlined below.
15.00 Registration
15.30 Opening and Welcome
Arent van Wassenaer, Chairman, IPFA Netherlands
15.35 Introduction from RWS’s Perspective
Roger Mol, Rijkswaterstaat
15.45 Introduction from Rijksvastgoedbedrijf’s Perspective
Jos Mandema, Rijksvastgoedbedrijf
15.55 Introduction from a (former) CEO’s Perspective
Nico de Vries, former CEO, Royal BAM Group
16.05 Break out Introduction
Arent van Wassenaer, Chairman, IPFA Netherlands
16.15 Start Break Out Sessions
1) Partnering in the USA – Departments of Transport of many states in the US (such as Arizona and California) have developed mandatory partnering programmes in order to improve communication processes, to avoid conflicts and to develop relationship management. This table will discuss to what extent these techniques may lend itself for application in Dutch PPP Projects.
Moderated by: Arent van Wassenaer, Partner, Allen & Overy LLP
2) Learning from Shell – Shell is one of the world’s leading employers of capital projects.
Moderated by: Gerrit Vriezen, Assistant General Counsel Projects, Shell
3) Escalation and De-Escalation Techniques – Many disputes result from neglecting issues which have been sitting too long in a place where they couldn’t get resolved. How does a project deal with such issues and how can parties be stimulated to timely address such issues at the right level in order to avoid sticking in mushrooming disputes?
Moderated by: Christiaan Keijer, Rijkswaterstaat
4) Learning from the A2 Hooggelegen – The A2 Hooggelegen Alliance successfully applied techniques in order to achieve the common objective of the parties involved. To what extent can such techniques be applied in DBFM-projects?
Moderated by: Bart van der Roest, Project- en contractmanager, Rijkswaterstaat
5) Learning from the Platform for PPP Professionals – The Platform for PPP Professionals is the first public private partnership in the Netherlands for partnerships in the property and infrastructure sectors which focusses on the partnering skills and attributes within PPP projects.
Moderated by: Roland Verniers, Turner & Townsend and Andre Salomonson, Reset Management
6) Learning from the Noord-Zuidlijn - The Noord-Zuidlijn has been through a past in which many storms passed over the heads of everyone involved; no, the project is back on track and many lessons have been learned. Moderator Gerard Scheffrahn (project manager Noord-Zuidlijn) will discuss the most important ones and review to what extent these could be applied to PPP-projects.
Moderated by: Gerard Scheffrahn, Project Manager, Noord Zuidlijnproject
7) DRB’s – How they can help – Dispute Resolution Boards are being appointed in many major energy and infrastructure projects all over the world; also in The Netherlands. However, here they seem to be ad hoc rather than standing boards and they function as arbitral tribunals rather than panels assisting the parties to achieve their objectives
Moderated by: Lindy Patterson, Dispute Resolution Board Foundation, DRBF
8) How KPI’s can help to improve collaboration and performance. In the PPS-Progress Report, Minister Dijsselbloem announced as one of the State’s ambitions that KPI’s needed to be developed to get a better understanding of the qualitative performance of DBFM(O)-projects. At this table the participants will discuss to what extent “soft KPI’s” may contribute in this respect
Moderated by: Obbe Wassenaar, Rijkswaterstaat
9) The Contractor’s Perspective – Learning by Doing
Moderated by: Joris van Papenrecht, Commercial Director, BAM PPP
10) Thinking out of the Box
Moderated by: Gideon Tilburgs, Laing and Errol Scholten, EY
17.15 Reporting Back Breakout Sessions
18.00 Panel Discussion on Recommendations
Moderated by: Arent van Wassenaer, Chairman, IPFA Netherlands
Roger Mol, Rijkswaterstaat
Gerrit Vriezen, Shell
Joris van Papenrecht, BAM PPP
Gideon Tilburgs, Laing
Jos Mandema, Rijksvastgoedbedrijf
Pieter van Marken, Ministry of Finance
18.30 Closing Remarks
18.35 Networking Drinks Reception kindly Hosted by Rijkswaterstaat
For more information, please contact Laura Cafora e: lcafora@ipfa.org