Private-Public Partnerships (PPPs)

RM 218

There has been an increase in government issues within the last decades, especially after the Great Recession of 2007-2008. For instance, there has been constant budget cuts that have significantly weakened and reduced government capacity to address public needs. As a result, we have been forced to identify new and entrepreneurial needs to address social issues and to keep providing high quality public services, in spite of decreasing capacities. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to examine and identify best procurement practices in regards to Public-Private/Nonprofit Partnerships (PP/NPs) both for the organizational level as well as for policy level. This research also provides a comprehensive yet accessible, overview of PP/NPs. While it touches on the numerous possible forms of partnerships between the public, private and nonprofit sectors – it focuses primarily on one type of such partnerships - infrastructure PPPs. It provides a detailed discussion of their structures and benefits. Additionally, it explores the complexities associated with establishing and managing PP/NPs relationships. Furthermore, it is important to note that PP/NPs are complex contractual agreements while they are also a creative development that generates additional revenues. Public-private/nonprofit partnerships are regularly touted, sometimes to the point of excess, as being innovative and all-encompassing solutions to these budgetary constraints. Such contractual agreements are typically linked with increased quality, improves service delivery, cost saving and lower costs of financing. And while PP/NPs are surely interesting and creative mechanism, they are not necessarily as manageable or as effective as popular discourse as media would lead one to believe. In fact, it’s quite the contrary.