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Risks, Challenges and Value for Money of Public–Private Partnerships
Author(s) -
Chung Demi
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
financial accountability and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.661
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1468-0408
pISSN - 0267-4424
DOI - 10.1111/faam.12101
Subject(s) - legitimacy , general partnership , business , criticism , value (mathematics) , enforcement , toll , settlement (finance) , finance , public–private partnership , economics , politics , public economics , accounting , political science , law , biology , computer science , payment , genetics , machine learning
This study examines the unique issues, challenges and risks emerging at the end of a public‐private partnership (PPP) concession. The M4 motorway is the first Australian PPP that has reached the end of its concession. The absence of formal guidance on contractual closure created challenges for the partners in interpreting contract ambiguities, and in reaching agreement on the processes needed to close the contract. These challenges had posed several relational risks, the mitigations of which were supported by the relational contract partners developed over the concession term, and their reciprocity and ethical motivations. The reintegration risk emerged in the handback exemplifies the limits of controls designed for legitimacy concerns to resolve coordination problems. The political settlement for value for money was gestured by lifting the toll after the concession ended. In providing unparalleled empirical evidence against the long‐term ‘myths’ of PPPs, the study counters the criticism over PPPs’ impossibilities to handle uncertainties and to transfer risk.