What Auditors Talk About When They Talk About Public-Private Partnerships

This paper examines how a legislative auditor inserted the audit function into the accountability framework governing Public-Private Partnerships (PPP, 3P) in the education sector in New Brunswick, a small Canadian province. By examining two separate case studies of public-private partnerships separated by 13 years, this research offers a rare chance to track the evolution of the Auditor General’s audit practices, and, also, of the management accounting techniques employed inside the Government of New Brunswick. The findings of the Auditor General in both instances challenged the credibility of government’s Value-for-Money assertions for its public-private partnership arrangements. In doing so, the Auditor General cast serious doubt on the notion that all public-private partnerships are value-creating. This study also represents a somewhat rare academic study of the involvement of a Canadian legislative auditor in the analysis of a public-private partnership. Further, it outlines a number of areas for future study.