The Principal Contract Conditions with Construction Specificity
The heart of a public-private partnership for school construction is the contract. Under Article 21 of the Law on Public and Private Cooperation, the contract must contain the principal conditions: the object of the contract, the scope and characteristics of the work to be performed and other issues connected with the public infrastructure or the services to be rendered; the manner of distributing and transferring property rights between the parties; the term of operation; availability remuneration, result-based remuneration or other payments to the private partner; payments to be made by the public partner; and the grounds, manner and consequences of the termination of the contract.
In the construction context this list takes on a concrete technical language: the scope and characteristics of the work comprise the school design, the construction specification and the quality parameters, while the term of operation unites the construction and operation periods. The contract is concluded for a definite term, the principles of determining which are established by a legal act of the Government — which is why the time model of a school project requires an exact breakdown of both periods.
The Use of Public Infrastructure
Article 24 of the law regulates the regime of the built and existing infrastructure: public infrastructure must be used only for the purposes defined by the cooperation contract, unless otherwise provided by Georgian legislation. The private partner is obliged to duly observe the conditions defined by the contract and the standards established for the use of the public infrastructure.
For a school this means that the constructed building must be used only for its educational purpose and its maintenance must meet the established standards. A change of purpose — for instance, converting part of it to a commercial function — must occur in the manner provided for by the contract; otherwise it constitutes a breach.