HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Taskforce PFI Training Programme launched [April 1998]

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 24 April 1998.

In the third Public/Private Partnership (PPP) of its own, the Treasury’s Private Finance Taskforce has awarded a contract for the provision of a programme of in-depth Private Finance Initiative (PFI) training for civil servants to Price Waterhouse, one of the UK’s leading providers of PFI advisory services to the public sector.

Announcing the award of the contract, made in response to Recommendation 24 of the Bates Review of PFI, Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson said:

“With a growing number of PFI projects signed or close to signature, it is vital that Government Departments capture this knowledge and build on it through attending training events delivered by PFI practitioners with real extensive experience in the field.  This is another welcome step forward to ensuring that the Government delivers a steady flow of high quality PFI projects as efficiently and effectively as possible.

It is also good to see the Treasury Taskforce itself actively practising what it preaches. PPP’s are all about negotiating deals that are good for both sides and the Government is keen to exploit the potential for better value for money through the use of a wide spectrum of partnerships that combine public and private sector skills”.

The contract has been awarded following a competitive tender.  Pilot training courses are being run in London and Edinburgh during April, with a full roll-out of the Taskforce approved PFI training programme planned from early summer onwards.  The programme will be open to all public sector PFI practitioners, in both central and local government.