# Partnering agreement questions

These questions help a prime contractor, subcontractor, consortium or joint venture talk clearly before spending heavily on a bid. They are not a substitute for a lawyer-drafted agreement.

## Role and authority

- Which exact entity submits and signs?
- Is the relationship prime/subcontract, consortium, joint venture or another documented structure?
- Who may speak to the buyer?
- Who may approve scope, price, departures and addenda?
- What can each party truthfully claim?
- What is expressly outside each party's role?

## Work and money

- Who owns each tender response and delivery task?
- Who supplies which staff, licences, insurance, equipment and evidence?
- Who prices each work package?
- How are bid costs shared?
- When and how is each party paid?
- What happens if government delays payment, varies the work or rejects an invoice?

## Risk and delivery

- Which party carries design, construction, professional, safety, privacy, cyber and cultural-authority risk?
- Does the head contract allow the proposed subcontracting?
- Which government clauses must be copied into subcontracts?
- Who reports performance and public-purpose commitments?
- Who fixes defects and pays for rework?
- What are the stop-work, dispute and exit pathways?

## Information and public boundaries

- What is public source material?
- What is confidential tender material?
- Where will prices, signatures, personal details and commercial evidence be stored?
- Can an LLM access the material, and under what approved boundary?
- Who owns new intellectual property and who may reuse it?
- Who approves public references to the partnership?

## Decision record

- Conditions that must be true before bidding:
- Conditions that trigger a pause or no-bid:
- Final bid decision:
- Approved by:
- Date: