THE IMPORTANCE OF PRE-OPERATIONAL PHASE OF PRIVATE FINANCE INITIATIVE (PFI) PROJECT IN MALAYSIA

A standard form of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project can be classified into different procurement phases to provide a better management control for the public and private sectors contemplating PFI procurement. The PFI development process comprises of preparatory, procurement, contract award and contract management phases. This paper is a part of an on-going research and it intends to investigate, the perception about the pre-operational phase of a PFI contract and its performance measurement by using Earned Value Management (EVM) technique in Malaysia. Pragmatic research in the form of questionnaire survey was conducted from the leading constructors, infrastructure developers and potential beneficiaries of 9th Malaysian Plan. In Malaysia, it is very difficult to get the feedbacks on contractual aspects of a PFI project for a variety of reasons, not least the dearth of PFI projects in the country. The results of this study indicates that most of the construction organizations have a understandable view about the importance and systematic monitoring and controlling of pre-operational phase of a PFI project. However, a wide gap is found on the usage of EVM technique for monitoring of organizations critical projects including PFI jobs.