Practical guidelines on incorporating “partnering” within IT agreements for public sector bodies

Abstract

“Partnership” and “partnering” are two of the most frequently used terms in public sector procurement. They may be used by both customers and suppliers to justify their respective negotiating positions. A supplier may argue that, since the agreement is a “partnership agreement”, there should be no service credits or liquidated damages payable. The customer on the other hand, may argue, on similar grounds, that it wants to benchmark the supplier and have a broad right to audit every aspect of the supplier’s business. But despite being well used phrases, most guidance relating to these concepts does not define how “partnerships” or “partnering” is to work in practice. While most talk of the supplier and the customer working together “in partnership” with common aims, there is little information available as to how this will be incorporated into agreements, particularly in the context of large scale IT procurements. 1 1 There is the “ACA Standard Form of Contract for Project Partnering”, for use in a limited range of construction contracts. The purpose of this article is to review the available guidance and detail some of the ways in which this guidance can be incorporated into legal agreements.