Public-private partnership (
PPP)
describes a government service or private business venture which is
funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or
more
private sector companies. These
schemes are sometimes referred to as PPP, P3 or
P
3.
PPP involves a contract between a public sector authority and a
private party, in which the private party provides a public service
or project and assumes substantial financial, technical and
operational risk in the project. In some types of PPP, the cost of
using the service is borne exclusively by the users of the service
and not by the taxpayer. In other types (notably the
private finance initiative),
capital investment is made by the private sector on the strength of
a contract with government to provide agreed services and the cost
of providing the service is borne wholly or in part by the
government. Government contributions to a PPP may also be in kind
(notably the transfer of existing assets). In projects that are
aimed at creating
public goods like in
the
infrastructure sector, the
government may provide a capital
subsidy in
the form of a one-time
grant, so as to
make it more attractive to the private investors. In some other
cases, the government may support the project by providing revenue
subsidies, including
tax breaks or by
providing
guaranteed annual
revenues for a fixed period.
Typically, a private sector consortium forms a special company
called a "
special purpose
vehicle" (SPV) to develop, build, maintain and operate the
asset for the contracted period. In cases where the government has
invested in the project, it is typically (but not always) allotted
an
equity share in the SPV. The
consortium is usually made up of a building contractor, a
maintenance company and bank lender(s). It is the SPV that signs
the contract with the government and with subcontractors to build
the facility and then maintain it. In the
infrastructure sector, complex arrangements
and contracts that guarantee and secure the
cash flows, make PPP projects prime candidates for
Project financing. A typical PPP
example would be a hospital building financed and constructed by a
private developer and then leased to the hospital authority. The
private developer then acts as landlord, providing housekeeping and
other non medical services while the hospital itself provides
medical services.
Origins
Pressure to change the standard model of Public Procurement arose
initially from concerns about the level of
public debt, which grew rapidly during the
macroeconomic dislocation of the 1970s
and 1980s. Governments sought to encourage private
investment in
infrastructure, initially on the basis of
accounting fallacies arisingfrom the fact
that public accounts did not distinguish between recurrent and
capital expenditure.
The idea that private provision of infrastructure represented a way
of providing infrastructure at no cost to the public has now been
generally abandoned, interest in alternatives to the standard model
of public procurement persisted. In particular, it has been argued
that models involving an enhanced role for the private sector, with
a single private sector organisation taking responsibility for most
aspects of service provisions for a given project, could yield an
improved allocation of
risk, while maintaining
public
accountability for essential
aspects of service provision.
Initially, most public-private partnerships were negotiated
individually, as one-off deals.
In 1992, however, the Conservative government of John Major in the United Kingdom
introduced the private finance initiative (PFI),
the first systematic program aimed at encouraging public-private
partnerships. In the 1992 program, the main focus was on
reducing the
Public
Sector Borrowing Requirement, although, as already noted, the
effect on the public accounts was largely illusory. The
Labour government of
Tony Blair elected in 1997, persisted with the
PFI sought to shift the emphasis to the achievement of "value for
money" mainly through an appropriate allocation of risk.
A number of
Australian state
governments have adopted systematic programs based on the PFI. The
first, and the model for most others, is Partnerships
Victoria.
Early problems
Because of the focus on avoiding increases in public debt, many
private infrastructure projects in the early 1990s involved
provision of services at substantially higher cost than could have
been achieved under the standard model of public procurement. The
central problem was that private investors demanded and received a
rate of return that was higher than the government’s
bond rate, even though most or all of the income
risk associated with the project was borne by the public
sector.
A number of
Australian studies of early
initiatives to promote private investment in infrastructure reached
the conclusion that, in most cases, the schemes being proposed were
inferior to the standard model of public procurement based on
competitively tendered construction of publicly owned assets
(Economic Planning Advisory Commission (EPAC) 1995a,b; House of
Representatives Standing Committee on Communications Transport and
Microeconomic Reform 1997; Harris 1996; Industry Commission 1996;
Quiggin 1996).
One response to these negative findings was the development of
formal procedures for the assessment of PPPs in which the central
focus was on "value for money" rather than reductions in debt. The
underlying framework was one in which value for money was achieved
by an appropriate allocation of risk. These assessment procedures
were incorporated in the private finance initiative and its
Australian counterparts from the late 1990s onwards.
Subsequent debate
Although the general view that governments should seek "value for
money" has been widely accepted, there have been continuing
disputes over whether the guidelines designed to achieve these
goals are appropriate, and whether they have been correctly applied
in particular cases. Much of the discussion has been based on
debates over the UK private finance initiative.
PSPP Variant
Some
social enterprises have
proposed, or are operating, partnerships with the state and
commercial partners which they call
Public Social Private
Partnerships .
Public-Private Product Development Partnership (PDP)
PDPs are a class of PPPs that focus on health product development
for diseases of the developing world. PDPs have formed over the
past decade to unite the public sector's commitment to
international public goods for health with private industry's
expertise in product development and marketing. These
not-for-profit organizations bridge public- and private-sector
interests, with a view toward resolving the specific incentive and
financial barriers to increased industry involvement in the
development of safe and effective products. An example of a
successful PDP is the
Medicines for Malaria
Venture , a Swiss foundation whose mission is to bring public,
private and philanthropic sector partners together to fund and
manage the discovery, development and delivery of new medicines for
the treatment and prevention of malaria in disease-endemic
countries.
Specific cases
While some PPP projects have proceeded smoothly, others have been
highly controversial.
Australian examples include: Airport Link,
the Cross City Tunnel, and the
Sydney Harbour
Tunnel
, all in Sydney
; the
Southern Cross
Station
redevelopment in Melbourne
; and the Robina
hospital in Queensland
.
In
British
Columbia
, Canada
Public-private partnerships have
become significant in both social and infrastructure
development. PPP’s exist in a variety of forms including
the Canada Line rapid transit, the Abbotsford Hospital and Cancer Centre and
run of river hydro-electric projects in Toba River
.
Private participation in railway share
Private
participation in railway share (PPRS) refers to different
approach of investment either in infrastructure, rolling stock or
..., to increase the railway transportation share as a major
challenge for future of the globe as a sustainable mode of
transport.
Examples
International
Some international health care programs may be considered
public-private partnerships:
- Medicines for Malaria
Venture is an not-for-profit drug discovery, development and
delivery organization, established as a Swiss foundation, based in
Geneva
. MMV is supported by a number of
foundations, governments and other donors.
- As a UN agency, the WHO is financed through
the UN system by contributions from member states. In recent years,
the WHO's work has involved more collaboration with NGOs and the
pharmaceutical industry, as well as with foundations such as the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Some of these collaborations may be considered global
public-private partnerships (GPPPs); half the WHO budget is
financed by private foundations.
- The TB Alliance is financed by
public agencies and private foundations, and partners with research
institutes and private pharmaceutical companies to develop
faster-acting, novel treatments for Tuberculosis that are affordable and accessible
to the developing world.
- DNDi, the Drugs for Neglected
Diseases Initiative was founded in 2003 as a not-for-profit
drug development organization focused on developing novel
treatments for patients suffering from neglected diseases.
- The International AIDS Vaccine
Initiative (IAVI), a biomedical public-private product
development partnership (PDP), was established in 1996 to
accelerate the development of a vaccine to prevent HIV infection
and AIDS. IAVI is financially supported by governments,
multilateral organizations, and major private sector institutions
and individuals.
- Public Private Partnerships for Disaster Management brings
together the Private sector for PPP models with a tool box of
partnership opportunities towards Towards Resilient &
Sustainability Goals
- The Public Private Partnership for improving teaching and
learning in schools in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Australia
- Southbank
Education and Training Precinct, Brisbane
- Adelaide-Darwin Railway
(a BOOT arrangement)
- Airport
Link, Sydney
- Cross City Tunnel, Sydney
- Eastern Distributor,
Sydney
- Lane Cove Tunnel
, Sydney
- Sydney Harbour Tunnel
, Sydney
- M2 Hills Motorway, Sydney
- M4 Western Motorway, Sydney
- M5 South Western Motorway, Sydney
- Westlink M7, Sydney
- CityLink, Melbourne - revenue from
tolls ensures profits for investors
- EastLink, Melbourne -
revenue from tolls ensures profits for investors
- Newcastle Mater Hospital Redevelopment, Newcastle, NSW
- Southern Cross Station
, Melbourne
- Headquarters Joint Operations Command (HQJOC)construction and
maintenance of a major Defence facility. Queanbeyan and Bungendore,
[NSW]
- The National Broadband
Network, a Fibre to The Home network set to be built.
Canada
East Africa
In the realm of international development, public private
partnerships are common as the host government is supported by
international private sector investment. The Gates Foundation and
the Global Fund for Aids, TB and
Malaria
donate medical commodities and technical support to strengthen
health service delivery at government institutions.
Many non-governmental organisations also support public private
partnerships in health service delivery.
In Kampala
, the International Hospital provides the facilities
for complex surgery with finance support from the Ugandan
government. At the smaller scale,
Hope Clinic Lukuli is providing
philanthropic primary health care using government and donor funded
health commodities.
Germany
India
Ireland
PPPs are being increasingly used in Ireland to deliver both major
and minor infrastructural projects.
New Zealand
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
- California Fuel
Cell Partnership (CaFCP)
- State Route 125, San
Diego, California
- Central Park
, New York City
- Chicago Skyway
Bridge, Chicago
, Illinois
- Dulles Greenway, suburban
Washington, DC
- Indiana East-West Toll
Road, (Interstate 80/Interstate 90), Northern Indiana
- Las Vegas Monorail,
Nevada
- Southern Indiana Toll
Road, (Interstate 69, proposed), Martinsville to Evansville, Indiana
- The
redevelopment of downtown Chattanooga,
Tennessee
from the mid-1980s to present.
- Pocahontas Parkway, suburban
Richmond, Virginia
- Riverside County
Library System, Riverside, California
- Silver Line ,
suburban Washington, DC
- HOT (High Occupancy or Toll) Lanes on the Capital Beltway, suburban
Washington, DC,
- Water Taxi Beach
, Hunters Point, Queens
, New York
- US
Public-Private Investment Program 2009 for "toxic debt"
- Connecticut Highway Plazas
See also
References
- The private finance initiative (PFI)
- An Introduction to Public Private
Partnerships
-
http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/ppta-defaultHOTLANESCapitalBeltway.asp
Further reading
- Chinchilla, C. "El nuevo contrato de colaboración entre el
setor público y el sector privado", Revista Española de Derecho
Administrativo nº 132 (2006)
- Gonzalez Garcia, J. "El contrato de colaboración público
privada", Revista de Administración Pública, nº 170 (2006).
- Linotte Didier, Un cadre juridique désormais sécurisé pour
les contrats de partenariat, AJDA, n° 1/2005 du 10 janvier
2005.
- Monera Frédéric, Les financements innovants de services et
de projets publics, Revue de la Recherche Juridique – Droit
prospectif, PUAM, 2005-1, p.337 & s.
- Colman, J. (2002), ‘Mumbo jumbo…and other pitfalls:Evaluating
PFI/PPP projects’, National Audit Office PFI / PPP Conference
"Bringing about beneficial change, London, May.
- Economic Planning Advisory Commission (EPAC) (1995), ‘Final
Report of the Private Infrastructure Task Force’, Australian
Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
- Economic Planning Advisory Commission (EPAC) (1995), ‘Interim
Report of the Private Infrastructure Task Force’, Australian
Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
- Harris, A.C. (1996), ‘Financing infrastructure: private profits
from public losses’, Audit Office of NSW, Public Accounts
Committee, Parliament of NSW, Conference, Public/Private
infrastructure financing: Still feasible?, Sydney, September.
- House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications
Transport and Microeconomic Reform, (1997), ‘Planning not Patching:
An Inquiry Into Federal Road Funding’, The Parliament of the
Commonwealth of Australia, Australian Government Publishing
Service, Canberra.
- Industry Commission (1996), ‘Competitive Tendering and
Contracting by Public Sector Agencies’, Australian Government
Publishing Service, Canberra.
- Quiggin, J. (1996), ‘Private sector involvement in
infrastructure projects’, Australian Economic Review, 1st quarter,
51–64.
- Spackman, M. (2002), ‘Public-private partnerships: lessons from
the British approach’, Economic Systems, 26(3), 283–301.
- Strauch, L. (2009), ‘Public Private Partnership in European
Road Infrastructure: PPP as Investment Asset Following the M6 Road
Project in Hungary’,VDM.
- Monbiot, G. (2000), ‘Captive State, The Corporate Takeover of
Britain’, Macmillan.
External links
Governments' PPP Websites