Open AccessPotentials for Public Private Partnerships for Saudi Municipalities
Author(s) -
Waleed Abdullah Abdulaal Waleed Abdullah Abdulaal
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of king abdulaziz university-environmental design sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1658-4309
pISSN - 1658-1598
DOI - 10.4197/env.6-1.2
Subject(s) - procurement , outsourcing , general partnership , business , public–private partnership , work (physics) , private sector , service delivery framework , municipal services , public sector , stakeholder , quality (philosophy) , call for bids , service (business) , public relations , public administration , marketing , finance , economic growth , economics , engineering , political science , mechanical engineering , philosophy , economy , epistemology
Public Private Partnership (PPP) provides an approach forimproving the efficiency of public services. Municipalities in SaudiArabia are encouraged to get into arrangements with the private sectorto improve their service delivery. However, existing practices inmunicipal services are confined to outsourcing and no attempt hasbeen made towards PPP. This paper aims at examining the potentialsfor PPP in providing municipal services. The paper starts byreviewing a theoretical background to establish a general frameworkfor PPP. Hence, the decision of municipalities to partner with a privatestakeholder is a key resolution to municipalities; the paper defines thecircumstances that make it a feasible decision to test their applicabilityto Saudi municipalities. Particular referencing is given to Jeddah citydue to difficulties in getting data on municipal services in generalwhich can be overcome by personal knowledge and experience. In thiscase, author’s knowledge about the city of Jeddah gathered from hispost as a Deputy Mayor provides a descriptive source for the researchwhich follows an explorative approach. The main findings of thepaper include that most municipal services suffer from inadequateresources and that they are dominated by a low quality of delivery.Municipalities are therefore recommended to prepare a strategicframework that considers PPP to improve their services. However,PPP may not be a good alternative for all services; rather it can be apotential recourse for improving public work projects currently runthrough conventional procurement.