Experts meet to discuss state of PPP in the Czech Republic
Public Private Partnership - or PPP for short - meaning cooperation with the private sector in realising public projects - has recently become quite a catch-phrase here in the Czech Republic. In Prague this week, a conference was held where representatives of the public and private sectors came together to find ways of optimising co-operation. Filip Drapak, is advisor to the chairman of the Czech National Property Fund:
And what are the advantages of PPP?
"First of all, you have the public sector focus on what it should mainly be concerned about, which is not how things are being done but what the results are for citizens. Secondly, you transfer risks, which is very important. You also achieve value for money, which means a more efficient delivery of those services. Also, the pragmatic statistics from the UK show that projects done as PPPs are delivered on time and there are not so many overhead costs on projects."
A project that was a PPP project was the D-47 motorway that was to be built in northern Moravia. There seem to have been problems there. Is the Czech Republic doing anything to guarantee that these PPP projects are going to be optimal?
"Yes. I think the conclusions which were made after the D-47 project are very important. Instead of trying particular transactions, the Czech government decided to take a more programmed and systematic approach to PPPs. First of all, to make legislative changes on the legal environment so that it's clear what PPP is and how it works in this country. I don't mean the introduction of a specific PPP law but by changing legislation specifically for particular tasks like procurement, concessions, and other fields of legislation.
"The Czech government has also looked at the institutional setup in this country, whether we are really able to fulfil the role of check & balance, for example, because PPP certainly has fiscal implications and whether there is an adequate knowledge in the management within the government in this field. So, we are setting up an efficient institutional framework in this country.
"We also need to change the processes and thinking within the public sector so that we are able to do PPPs efficiently on the side of the government. So, there are a lot of changes and implications from our bad experience with D-47, which was not only a non-transparent deal but we also didn't have the basic tools to evaluate the transaction, which we should have in the future."
