Delivery of Services through Public/Private Partnership
Introduction
A service delivery contract or agreement is a written agreement between two companies or entities (one public and the other private) which indicates the soliciting of certain services from one company by the other. It outlines the terms of delivery of the said service, the pace at which that service should be provided and in what quality. Service delivery contracts are company specific and they are usually customized to encapsulate the needs of those parties they concern.
The availability of a service contract helps to clearly identify to parties, what their obligations and expectations are. It documents this understanding, provides for a more transparent process where both parties know what they are required to do and provide. In this way it provides legal protection to both parties and helps to cement the business relationship ( Cromwell, 2009).
Service Contract between CSX Corporation and Florida ports Authority
In the Lakeland Tampa Florida metro area, a service delivery contact was recently done between CSX Corporation and the Florida ports authority. CSX Corporation is a railroad company. The Florida ports authority on the other hand is a public entity under the department of transport. The public –private partnership was undertaken to ensure that a new Tampa Gateway Rail terminal was built.
The service delivery contract clearly identifies the party’s involved with their official business names, contact details and id numbers. IT also identifies each party’s legal representative. A description of the work is spelled out. The contract indicates that work being carried out by CSX is carried out as a contract and not CSX’s capacity as an employee of the ports authority. The terms of the contact involved the provision of rail road building services from the CSX Corporation for the ports authority .CSX was required to build a railroad loop that was 2 mile long in excellent and most modern quality standards. The general idea is to ensure that the ethanol capabilities of the port were expanded significantly. The service contract outlines the duration of time by which the rail road should have been completed and the quality standards expected of the final products. The service contract also outlines the level of professional and mechanical support that CSX is expected to give in connection with their product to ensure maximum efficacy. The service contract outlines that a compatibility test between the new rail road and the current train car units existing on the port should be satisfactory so that both old and new train cars are able to run on the new rail road.
The materials to be used during the rail road construction were clearly outlined as well as heir quality. The end date was outlined. The financial compensation to CSX was outlined and a break down of the same provided. There was a detailed explanation about how CSX would be paid, which included a percentage of the fee before commencement of the work and the remaining percentage after the work. The type and amount of insurance coverage to be maintained by each of the parties, was outlined and parties included clauses explaining their intentions to abide by all applicable laws and regulations (Greve, 2008). The contract gave details of the action that would be taken if either party refused to honor their contractual obligation. a clause was provided to ensure confidentiality of sensitive information regarding the contarct.Finanlly the contract bore signatures of both representatives for the two different parties ( Zheng, Roehrich &Lewis, 2008).
An interview with a government executive involved in the decision-making process involved in choosing to contract CSX for the job.
The executive disclosed that the selection for a company to do the same job was a competitive one were different companies pitched for the job . CSX won for their excellent track record as a railroad builder as well as for their reasonable pricing. There was a committee that was involved in the selection process (O’Looney, 1998). After a review of CSX, they recommended the company to the executive board of the port’s authority who ratified the company as the one to do the railroad for the port.
The port was not able to do the work at the required level without hiring expertise. The best expertise on Florida Tampa for railroad could only be provided by a private corporation.
References
Crowell, E.B. (2009). Florida’s Community Hospitals : Service Delivery Choices and Policy
Implications. Miami:Proquest LLC.
Federal Trade commission. (2001). ‘Service Contracts’. Retrieved on November 10th,
2012.
Greve , C. (2008). Contracting for Public Service. New York:Routledge.
Greve, C. & Ejersbo, N. ( 2005).Contracts as Reinvented Institutions In the Public Sector: A
cross Cultural Comparison.Westport: Praeger Publishers.
O’Looney, J.A. ( 1998). Outsourcing State and Local Governemnt Services : Decision –making
Strategies. Wesport:Greenwood Publishing Group.
Zheng, J. Roehrich, J.K. and Lewis, M.A. (2008). The dynamics of contractual and relational
governance: Evidence from long-term public-private procurement arrangements. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management. 14(1): 43-54 .
