tieke:

 

Lowest price indeed, as this article about the PPP contract review points out, the price that the contractors had to agree to was not only pulled out of thin air, there was only a 75% chance that our government-owned road crews would be able to meet this price, and they don't have to make a profit. Private companies would be able to do it so cheaply because they would be magically "innovative and efficient". Strangely enough, many potential contractors weren't too keen on bidding on a project where you were almost certainly going to lose money, unless you could renegotiate halfway through:

 

"The bidders weren’t so keen. One interviewee called the price “demonstrably unrealistic”, and another said that it was “dubious” whether it actually achieved value for money for the Crown.

 

Setting the tender price so low meant firms were tendering for a project knowing that it was unrealistic to be able to deliver it at that cost. The review noted that setting the price low essentially “double counted” cost savings because the public sector figure was already required to consider the most efficient and cost-effective way of doing things."

 

Simply ridiculous. No wonder the contractors cut corners (no pun intended), modified machinery, did a crap job, etc. This is sad and I find it depressing. We should be better than this.