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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE World Bank says a number of governments across the globe fall short of the generally accepted good practices required for successful implementation of Public-Private-Partnerships.

A public-private-partnership (PPPs) is a long term contract between the public sector and a private company or a consortium of private companies often covering construction, maintenance and financing of infrastructure projects.

Zimbabwe has embraced the model as part of the country’s efforts to lure investment and promote economic growth and recovery in different sectors such as infrastructure, mining, tourism, agriculture and manufacturing.

In its new Benchmarking PPP Procurement 2017 report, the World Bank Group reveals that:

“Many economies are yet to adopt broadly recognised good practices to prepare, procure, and manage Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)”.

The report flags potential improvements that can help governments fill the gap in an effort to provide better PPP procurement and enable better infrastructure service delivery to all.

It benchmarks government capabilities in 82 economies across four key areas namely PPP preparation, PPP procurement, unsolicited proposals, and PPP contract management.

Across the four areas measured, the data finds that most economies fall short of recognised good practices.

The report points out that project preparation and contract management are the two areas where a significant number of countries perform poorly.

The average performance of each of the categories varies across regions and income level.

“The report aims to inform decision-making on the design of PPP procurement policies and regulations by comparing economies to recognised good practices that ensure transparency and encourage fair competition,” says World Bank senior economist Ms Fernanda Ruiz Nunez, quoted in the report.

“There is considerable scope to improve practices around PPPs, including around disclosure of information.”

The report highlights that a transparent information system is essential to monitor and manage PPP contracts. Nonetheless, only 16 percent of the economies measured require data to be publicly available.

“This benchmarking exercise is the first attempt to collect and present systematic data on PPP procurement on a large scale by providing comparable data on the regulatory frameworks governing the processes,” said the World Bank senior private sector development specialist, Ms Tania Ghossein.

“It analyses the regulatory framework at the national level using a highway transport project as a case study for comparison purposes and presents a picture as of the end of March 2016.”

The World Bank stated that when designed well and implemented in a balanced regulatory environment, PPPs can bring greater efficiency and sustainability in providing such public services as water, sanitation, energy, transport, telecommunications, health care, and education.

“Every country has its own unique challenges, priorities, and financial constraints. In some cases, PPPs can bring great benefit by leveraging the management capacity, innovation, and expertise of the private sector, while at other times a traditional public sector approach could be more appropriate,” said the financial institution.

@okazunga