Public–private partnerships

Chapter 20 discusses public–private partnerships (PPPs) between government and major corporations. Generally, in PPPs the government sets the task and agrees the fee, while the private sector does the work and incurs the costs whilst receiving a contractually agreed profit. The project is normally building a major infrastructure facility. This arrangement has been very popular in the UK until recently, as well as in many other countries. In the USA a strong lobby is advocating the increased use of PPPs to update the country’s infrastructure. The chapter notes that the idea of public–private partnership is a good one in principle, but that scandals of excess profits (and sometimes losses) can result from deficiencies in negotiation and implementation. The chapter also considers success criteria for PPPs and concludes that they vary according to the political situation and hence motivation in the country in question.