Supporting Public Authorities and Contractors under PPN 02/20

By Tim Frondigoun · 25 March 2020

The latest Procurement Policy note (PPN 02/20) states that Public Authorities should:

• Pay “at risk” suppliers, until at least, the end of June
• Put in place the “most appropriate payment measures to support cash flow”.

In order to qualify “suppliers should agree to act on an open book basis and make cost data available to the contracting authority during this period”.  So Contracting Authorities are expected to continue to pay contractors their costs, (but not profit). They should continue to pay employees and flow down funding to their subcontractors and supply chain.

Authorities should pay invoices immediately – so normal payment terms will be suspended.

At ARK, we can support Contracting Authorities to agree what these regular payments should be – with our experienced project managers creating a key link between client and contractor. Our experienced finance and administrative team are able to provide additional support to process payments where Authorities are short of resources. Let us help the Government help you to help contractors and to “maintain cashflow and protect jobs.”

We are also able to support Public Authorities and Contractors looking to agree Open Book valuations / invoices under PPN 02/20.

We have an established team of experts with experience of delivering open book contract arrangements, providing honest broker and critical friend services across a wide range of services in construction and asset management. Backed by an extensive asset and development cost data base we are able to provide the sort of granular evidence that will be needed to make the process work and to protect jobs.

If you would like to discuss how we can help your organisation, contact us at ark@arkconsultancy.co.uk