PFI was a disgraceful Labour Party disaster, with a huge "financial hit" that Blair effectively passed on to future governments and tax payers who would be "picking up the tab" over a period of 30 years! The Scottish govt have pragmatically tried to initiate a more accountable and efficient financial model - originally the Non-Profit Distribution Scheme looked like a decent model but it fell foul of EU rules and regs in 2016. So they moved on to the Mutual Investment Model which again is high risk to incur financial penalties! What is the perfect financial model to finance massive projects then?? Seriously!!! Because this area of effective finance and management of major projects provides a f###### minefield of risky choices. I am an ex projects and contracts administrator - I know my stuff and the pitfalls of choosing appropriate contracts, compiling them properly and managing projects can be fraught with difficulty. I've studied some of the main issues governing said projects of concern and, by gum, one must briefly move away from govt accountability and focus on people accountability i.e. project managers, supervisors, checkers/clerks of works (frugally used theses days btw to "save money"!!!!!???) etc - the key words to use are "competence" and "awareness" in delivering a high spec, high costs project/contract and doing it as cost effectively as possible. Remember that the Scot govt has to normally deal with a private sector partner/partners who wants to "make lotsa money/profit" out of such an exercise. Therefore the main objective of the govt is to try to ensure that said contracts are not "flimsy documents" that an unscrupulous Principal Contractor can "drive a bus through"! In other words, the contract clauses should be strict and to the point where additional payments (a big item in large contracts!) should be minimised as much as possible and that is down to good contract writing. Non-performance payments/penalties are important in ensuring "contractor accountability" and not avoiding responsibilities! Adversarial contractual partnerships are not recommended in administering big projects either. I was astounded to read the content of McColl's report re the Ferguson Shipyard problems with the CalMac Ferry project!!!! 
The adversarial nature of associations within this project was so amateurish and worthy of massive criticism - ridiculous!! There are some great research docs that have been published down the years (some of them go back over 20-30 years, published by the likes of the ICE and others) and basically provide some good info re the "dos" and "don't" of compiling contract docs and linking to the amicable administration of delivering a major project and doing it effectively and efficiently!! The failures within all said "failed" large-scale projects are self-evident to me and the "buck" does not stop totally at the "doorstep" of the Scottish govt. It is far more complicated than that AS USUAL!!
The adversarial nature of associations within this project was so amateurish and worthy of massive criticism - ridiculous!! There are some great research docs that have been published down the years (some of them go back over 20-30 years, published by the likes of the ICE and others) and basically provide some good info re the "dos" and "don't" of compiling contract docs and linking to the amicable administration of delivering a major project and doing it effectively and efficiently!! The failures within all said "failed" large-scale projects are self-evident to me and the "buck" does not stop totally at the "doorstep" of the Scottish govt. It is far more complicated than that AS USUAL!!