November 17 2025 | Industry news and trends | Innovation | Tenders | Procure
When it comes to social infrastructure, governments and the private sector have long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Mutual benefits – and better outcomes for the public – are more likely to ensue when objectives are clear, competition is vigorous and the procurement process is conducted with integrity and rigour.
KPMG LLP US Managing Director Iain Tester unpacks some of the complexities administrations and suppliers are having to navigate, in an interview for our 2025 Social Infrastructure Outlook Report.
What would you say are the biggest challenges that stakeholders face in the market currently?
I come back to the point about resiliency. How do we increase that resiliency? I think there’s a need for greater clarity, both in terms of the market itself and how it can respond. And also, in terms of the role that government plays. Government agencies are good at certain things, but when the problem set changes, the solution set hasn’t evolved yet. In the broader infrastructure market and as I mentioned, you can’t look at social infrastructure in isolation. There are situations where government agencies don’t really know where or how to make the first move forward. They’d prefer it to be market driven, but at the same time, the market needs support and clarity on what the government’s role will be in the development. So, I believe clarity of roles is very important overall.
How does one ensure greater transparency in the procurement process?
Transparency begins with having a clear understanding of roles and purposes. It’s important to help the market grasp what the opportunity is. We need to be transparent about why a piece of work is necessary, and then let the market respond with how they plan to deliver those services. While the question is about transparency in procurement, I think it should begin much earlier by creating a forum for clear conversations. If a bidder is going to invest a significant amount of money and effort into a bid, they need to know they have a fair chance, not that the outcome is biased towards someone else. There might be some implicit bias in the process, but you’ll get better responses if you clearly define the overarching problem you’re asking the market to solve.
What can be done to enhance competition?
If we want to get more participants involved, you need to create deal flow and investment opportunities that make it attractive for participants to get involved and overcome barriers to entry. If more competition can reduce prices or drive better solutions, then we need to think about how to put all these pieces together. We need to understand that more efficient solutions can come from having more participation and ideas, which can then promote innovation. We also need to rethink some of our procurement options. For example, it’s not just about P3 being ‘design, build, finance, operate’; there might be other options, like having an overarching delivery partner responsible for sourcing different contracts under that, which can help drive a more effective solution.
What part will digitalization play in streamlining the procurement process?
When you have multiple vendors, digitalisation should make the process more efficient. You can analyse financials and contracts much more effectively, for example. I think digitalisation offers a huge opportunity for the infrastructure market. Historically, the market has been very traditional in how it builds and prices future risks, but I have to believe that the tools we have available to us now should begin to give infrastructure developers and operators a better line of sight to future obligations and liabilities and allow those risks to be managed more effectively. That’s where we could see some real opportunities. Outside of the social setting, we’re already doing some of this with AI in departments of transportation, smart corridors, and leveraging transportation IT systems to make them more effective. The same principles can be applied to social infrastructure.
Striving for win-win outcomes
Better social infrastructure outcomes start with putting the building blocks in place to enable informed decision making and streamlined procurement. That’s where digital technology has a transformational role to play. It adds efficiency and rigour to all aspects of the process and enables public sector entities to progress social infrastructure projects in a manner that stands up to the strongest of scrutiny.
