Innovative contracting in infrastructure design and maintenance
This paper describes the results of research into the contract arrangements and design processes for contractors in the road infrastructure industry. The changing institutional environment has led the industry to believe that more opportunities can be realised to the benefit of society (lower cost, higher quality, more efficient design and design process) when contractors are allowed more 'design freedom' in their contracts with governments. We have explored the technical design space, and developed a framework to structure this space. Next, we identified, through many indepth interviews and case studies, a number of technical, organisational and institutional opportunities, threats and barriers for granting more design space. Finally, the paper discusses the conclusions that could be drawn from the mapping of the opportunities onto the bottlenecks, and it shows that much can indeed be gained, but that many of these opportunities for cost reduction or value improvement are hampered by large, inert institutional settings.
Room for the River: delivering integrated river basin management in the Netherlands
This article describes how the governance arrangements of the 2.2 billion Euro water safety programme Room for the River are enabling a transition towards integrated river basin management in the Netherlands. We observe that in terms of integrating multiple objectives and spatial scales, the programme design and multi-level governance processes in the programme have enabled the establishment of integrated plans and designs. We conclude that Room for the River plays an important role in a transition to integrated river basin management in the Netherlands through practical implementation of the strategic policy vision for integrated water management. Also, through application of a mixed centralized–decentralized governance approach, the programme has tackled governance pitfalls related to centralized planning approaches that previously impeded integrated water management. Although several of the governance lessons of the programme are being adopted by, for example, the Delta Programme, we have identified a risk that continuity of the newly introduced governance approach may be lost when the Room for the River programme is completed in 2015.
Performance Based Contracts
The 90s saw a noticeable growth in the use of competitive tendering as a way of selecting bus operators to deliver a range of services that had previously been supplied by governments, mainly driven by pressures to reduce the budget cost impact of service provision. The focus was typically on minimising costs to government (under the label of cost efficiency), rather than on delivering specific service quality outcomes. Negotiated performance-based contracts (PBCs) have emerged in recent years as an alternative to competitive tendering (CT) in its various guises (including tendered PBCs) as a framework within which the broader economics and social outcomes have moved to centre stage under the labels of value for money and maximising the benefits of government subsidy to society as a whole. This paper details the relative merits of negotiated and tendered PBCs, highlighting the context within which each type of PBC is best positioned to service the broader gaols of public transport policy. (a)