Source: The Independent

By Michael Harrison, Business Editor

Increasing numbers of companies are being deterred from tendering for contracts under the Government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) because of the length of time and cost involved in bidding, Parliament's spending watchdog, says today.

A report from the National Audit Office estimates that the average PFI deal takes three years to close, although in the case of one project to provide the Ministry of Defence with earth- moving vehicles and other heavy plant the tendering process took six years. This drawn-out process, says the NAO, is one reason why new PFI projects are attracting fewer bidders than earlier ones. Some 85 per cent of projects that closed before 2004 received three or more bids but for projects that closed between 2004 and 2006 the percentage had fallen to 67 per cent.

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Posted by pichu at March 8, 2007 11:41 PM