Govt aims to establish Public Private Partnership Unit – GSDS Vision 2040

Jun 09, 2019 News

Public Private Partnerships (PPP) will be instrumental in the execution of major infrastructural projects in the future. But before that happens, it is expected that a PPP unit will be established within the Ministry of Finance, as a platform for public-private dialogue, as well as for legal and logistical support.
Government, through the Ministry of Finance, last year solicited and secured the assistance of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to formulate a PPP Policy and legislative framework for Guyana.
According to a PPP handbook from the Ministry of Finance, a public-private partnership is a long-term procurement contract between public and private entities, in which the proficiency of each party is focused on the designing, financing, building and operationalising of an infrastructure project or providing a service through the appropriate sharing of resources, risks and rewards.
Government could establish PPPs for individual projects, but the handbook states that “PPPs require strong legal policy, appraisal, approval and monitoring arrangements to guide policy decisions and to enforce the agreements.”
The Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040 notes in its fiscal policy that a clear legal precedent for PPPs removes the need for project by project frameworks and reduces legal costs.
It recommends that government implement the legislative framework with institutional designs and guidelines for the establishment of the PPP unit.
The framework is part of Government’s intention to have PPPs be the drivers of key national development initiatives.
Last year, Finance Minister Winston Jordan listed some major infrastructural projects that are expected to be piloted by PPPs are the Demerara River Crossing, the Linden-Lethem road link, a deepwater harbour and container port, mini and maxi hydro plants and energy farms, plantation agriculture, modernisation and dredging of port Georgetown, a milk plant for Guyana, an information technology farm, and agro-industrial and small manufacturing arks.
There are certain key considerations Government has noted for the development of the PPP framework– affordability; legislative environment (a stable government; an independent judiciary; a robust Procurement Act and mechanism); institutional arrangements (where the Ministries of Finance, Public Infrastructure and Business will have clearly defined roles within the framework), and capacity building, since such a venture is barely charted ground for government and its stakeholders.
The framework and the unit are necessary to correct misgivings that occurred with previous PPPs which concerned the establishment of the Marriott Hotel and the Berbice Bridge.
The PPP unit will guide national efforts in establishing PPPs as a vehicle for financing and implementing key national development initiatives.

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