Newest draft eliminates ambiguities

THE SECOND (and final) draft of the National Commercial Ports Policy is "significantly stronger" than the first draft, said Laurie Smith, director of John T Rennie and member of the National Port Users Forum. "It has also made a number of concessions on issues raised by members," he told FTW. Two areas of concern to the forum have now been addressed in the 2nd draft - the issue of "subsidiarity" and the question of inter-port competition. Stronger statements "Far stronger statements have been made on the goals, vision and objectives," said Smith. "These clearly link in the philosophy of improved efficiencies, fair competition, transparent bidding processes and - just as important - activity based costing." Many of the ambiguities have been eliminated, he added, and suggests that "good progress" has been made. But, just prior to the final meeting with the Department of Transport - and the forum's last bite at the port policy cherry - Smith highlighted three issues raised by members which have not yet been addressed in this final draft. These were: l Private sector representation on decision making bodies; l Definition of the privatisation programme (what extent of concessioning envisaged); and l How will "appropriate" returns for the National Ports Authority (NPA) be determined, and how will new developments be financed. On the issue of "representation", the paper gives the minister discretion to appoint members to the "National Port Forum" - which will be an advisory body. Equally, the minister will decide on the constitution, scope and composition of the Port Regulatory body which is to play a key role in the transitional stages. "It may be the minister's intention to involve private sector representation in both bodies," Smith told FTW, "but I believe these intentions should be clearly stated up-front in the policy document. "It seems unlikely that there will be private sector representation on the NPA, but this can also be addressed again." On privatisation, Smith added, the guiding principles have been stated far more clearly in various places - talking, for example, about "open transparent objective non discriminatory bidding processes". "But," he told FTW, "little has been said about the degree of privatisation envisaged - or the timetable. "This could be due to difficulties with labour but - from a port user's perspective - I think definition is needed in the policy statement."