13.1. Capabilities Needed to Develop the Appraisal Studies

The capabilities necessary for an appraisal process can be divided into five main groups.

Technical:

• In charge of the project’s design, with expertise in the type of infrastructure that is the subject of the contract;
• Expertise in the technical aspects of the services involved.

Environmental:

• In charge of environmental impacts; should provide relevant expertise/ experience in environmental analysis.

Economic:

• Expertise in economic appraisal, preferably in the same sector/ infrastructure or service type.

Financial:

• Expertise in financial analysis in the field of user-paid or government-paid PPPs, preferably in the same sector/infrastructure or service type and also knowledge of financing similar PPP projects (when the government needs to develop a bankable structure);
• Expertise in contract risk structuring and payment mechanisms, preferably in the same sector/infrastructure or service type.

Legal:

• Expertise in public law/ administrative framework; and
• Experience in drafting PPP contracts. Although the drafting of the PPP contract will not occur until a later phase (see chapter 5), knowledge of PPP contracts will be necessary to enable a proper assessment of the existing legal framework. For a PPP covering existing operations, the legal due diligence will need to look at existing contracts, legal actions, loan contracts, and so on.