ISBN Number:
9789264042797
Publication date:
June 2008
142 pages

The introduction of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the early 1990s established a mode of public service delivery that redefined the roles of the public and private sectors. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, increasingly more countries – both within and outside the OECD area – started using this mode of delivery. Governments introduced PPPs for various reasons: for example, to improve the value for money in public service delivery projects, or because PPPs had the potential of bringing private finance to public service delivery. Yet there is still a lack of clarity about the definition of public-private partnerships as well as the relationships between affordability, budgetary limits and access to private finance.

Through a joint regulatory and budgetary perspective, this book undertakes a systematic analytical discussion of questions associated with PPPs. The aim is to provide governments with a toolkit of issues to be explored and resolved from a public governance perspective before engaging in a PPP project.

The book identifies possible good practices for the public sector to maximise the potential for PPP projects and to ensure that they are used appropriately to maximum general interest. These practices involve: affordability; value for money; fiscal rules and expenditure limits; risk sharing; the need for competition and transparency; regulatory issues; adequate institutional capacity; the public sector comparator; and the importance of political support.

Chapter 1.

Defining the Nature and Purpose of Public-Private Partnerships 

Chapter 2.

The Trend towards Public-Private Partnerships: What are Countries Doing?

Chapter 3.

The Economics of Public-Private Partnerships: Is the PPP Route the Best Alternative?

Chapter 4.

Budget Scoring and Accounting Treatment of Public-Private Partnerships

Chapter 5.

Managing the Creation of Public-Private Partnerships: The Role of PPP Units 

Chapter 6.

Policy Framework and Procedural Tools

Chapter 7.

Conclusion