AMAR SINGHDoes empanelment guarantee competence?
Over the years I have spent in public procurement and consultancy, one question has kept coming back to me: if a consulting firm is empanelled by the government, does that mean it is suitable for every Public–Private Partnership (PPP) project?
Some background first. On 1 July 2022, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance, Government of India, issued Notification No. 2/3/2021-PPP, empanelling 12 firms as Transaction Advisers (TAs) for PPP projects. The empanelment ran for three years, extendable by two, and the panel was made available to Central, State and local project-sponsoring authorities and their agencies. The list included names such as CRISIL, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, PwC and RITES, along with other advisory firms.
It was a worthwhile institutional step. But it also raises a bigger question about how government departments should judge advisory capability.
A starting point, not a guarantee
Empanelment gives eligible firms a route into assignments. It can simplify administrative procedures and give departments easier access to established professional organisations. What it shouldn't do is stand in for project-specific suitability.
A Transaction Adviser with a strong record in highway concessions doesn't automatically have the same depth in urban transport, water, energy or digital infrastructure. Every PPP project comes with its own financial assumptions, technical requirements, regulatory obligations and contractual risks. So the choice of adviser should look at relevant experience, the people actually proposed for the job, technical understanding, methodology, and the ability to deal with what that particular project needs.
A government-approved panel should help departments choose with better information. It shouldn't replace the evaluation itself.
Advisers must do more than draft documents
A Transaction Adviser isn't just an agency hired to produce an RFP or a concession agreement. Depending on the assignment, the work can include project structuring, feasibility assessment, financial modelling, risk allocation, running the bid process, and helping shape the contractual arrangements.
Imagine a project where the consultant delivers a technically thorough concession agreement but never tests whether the revenue assumptions are realistic. The agreement may look legally sound, and the project can still end up in financial trouble. Likewise, if land, regulatory or operational risks are allocated badly, disputes tend to surface after the contract is awarded.
A successful transaction is not the same thing as a successful project. The real value of an adviser lies in building arrangements that are commercially viable, legally defensible, technically sound and actually possible to implement.
Accountability stays with the government
The DEA notification makes the panel available to many project-sponsoring authorities. But bringing in an external adviser doesn't remove the public authority's responsibility for its own decisions. Departments need to question recommendations, check project assumptions, and make sure procurement and financial rules are followed. An adviser's opinion should feed into the decision, not make it.
Two cautions are worth adding. The notification refers to a separate Standard Operating Procedure or guide for using the panel, so the notification alone shouldn't be read as the full selection procedure. And the 2022 notification gives a fixed empanelment term rather than permanent eligibility, so anyone relying on it today would need to check later DEA actions to confirm where things stand.
From empanelment to accountability
Empanelment is a useful administrative tool, but whether a PPP succeeds depends on far more than the reputation of the firm that was appointed. Departments should judge advisory capability against what the project really needs, set clear deliverables, and keep up proper oversight. Advisers, for their part, should bring independent professional judgment to each assignment instead of treating earlier documents as templates that fit everything.
An empanelled firm may be qualified to take part, but its real worth shows only in the quality of its advice and in how suitable the transaction it structures turns out to be.
In the end, the point of hiring a Transaction Adviser shouldn't be to get through the bidding process. It should be to help build a partnership that lasts and delivers public value.