Frank Sun
The Ministry of Finance issued the Tai-Cai-Tsu-10500629520 Circular of July 22, 2016 (hereinafter, the “Circular”), pointing out that performance evaluation and visitation operation of infrastructure projects with private participation should preferably not be handled at the same time.
It is first pointed out in this Circular that under Article 51-1 of the Law for Promoting Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects (hereinafter, the “Law”), the authority in charge shall conduct operating performance evaluation at least once a year during the term of operation.
A private entity rated with good performance may be granted with a preemptive right before the term of operation expires. The legislative objective is that operating quality and performance evaluation are central to the supervision and administration of an infrastructure project with private participation by an authority in charge. The evaluation results may serve as improvement reference for the private entity and as the basis for a preemptive right granted by the authority in charge to the private entity.
This Circular further points out that the objective of the Guidelines for Visitation to Infrastructure Projects with Private Participation (hereinafter, the “Visitation Guidelines”) is to enhance the supervisory responsibility of the competent authority under the Law and an authority in charge of an infrastructure project with private participation and enhance the execution quality of all stages of the project. Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Visitation Guidelines specifically stipulate the details and objectives of the visitation for the preliminary operation phase and the performance (construction and operation) phase of a project and provide that the visitation operation is administrative facilitation and control in nature.
This Circular further holds that since the objective, nature, operating details, composition of committee members and missions of the operating performance evaluation and visitation of an infrastructure project with private participation are different, it is not appropriate to handle both at the same time.