This study sought to investigate the complexities and challenges posed by the adoption of a Private-Public Partnership (PPP) as a mechanism for delivering services in a South African local government context. The rationale of using PPP is to be effective, efficient, accountable and transparent. The study highlights the post-apartheid government's efforts to transform water services delivery through introducing various policies and legislation in order to provide water services to communities that were previously denied access to reliable and portable water supplies. This study looks at both positive and negative aspects of public service management in general and has identified New Public Management (NPM) as a theory that seeks to address the inadequacies commonly attributed to classic public service management. PPP is an example of emerging model of service delivery from the New Public Management school of thought. New Public Management, the study's adopted theoretical framework, is concerned with reformation in a public sector organization (in this case the local government), so that it can perform effectively and efficiently. Another area of concern in New Public Management is ensuring that the public sector organizations provide decision makers with sound advice on all aspect of policy: conceptualization, review, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The research methodology that this study used was a qualitative approach. Secondary sources of data were employed, while the method of data analysis was content analysis. Themes emerging from the data formed the basis for analysis in line with the adopted theoretical framework. The findings were based on the four sets of objectives of the study, using research questions as a guide. The process involved applying New Public Management (NPM) concepts to the case study. An examination of the manner in which networks have been managed in Nelspruit. Also examined is the legislative and policy framework that allowed and accommodated the inclusion and operation of PPP. Opportunities and threats surrounding the Greater Nelspruit Utility Company (GNUC) Concession were also identified. Finally, lessons and implications in the usage of the PPP approach as a mechanism of water services delivery concludes the discussion on the findings. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

This study explores the relationship between the government, private sector and local communities (public-private-community), through tourism and a culture-centered approach to communication for social change. Its focus is on the role of communication processes in amplifying the voices of the subaltern and how power relations affect this resonance in public-private-community tourism partnerships. Grounded in a pragmatic cultural studies approach which is self-reflexive, this study seeks to explore the connection between forms of power and lived experiences. The study is informed by Critical Social Science, which advocates a radical ethics concerned with power and oppression. It encourages the researcher to act as a bricoleur by taking up moral projects which serve to weave collaboration, agency and transformation. Case studies of two tourist camps in the African Ivory Route, which are government-funded, communityowned, and privately-operated, provide the ‘hunting ground’ for exposing the existing communicative processes between the partners and manifestations of power. The relationship between the government, community and private partner will be examined through Lauren Dyll-Myklebust’s (2011) schematic Public-Private-Community Partnership model, which was developed to account for the multiple dimensions of the type of development communication strategies employed in inaugurating operations in a public-privatecommunity partnership tourism initiative. This, together with my own reflexive analysis, will elucidate the kinds of communicative processes that exist in the partnership. An objective of the study is to identify ways in which communication in tourism development partnerships can facilitate subaltern agency. Tourism has often been criticised for its inability to function as a positive vehicle for development. This study aims to show that by listening to the voices of the subaltern, fostering dialogue and encouraging collaboration, tourism development initiatives can empower communities. / M.A. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

If public-private partnerships (P3s) represent much beyond alternate service delivery (ASD) re-branded, then it is the addition of private financing (PFI) that differentiates P3s from plausible procurement alternatives. With PFI as the incremental difference, this paper analyzes the will to P3 given the nonrecourse finance deal structures used in P3s in practice. The will to P3 is shown to be a debt interest tax shield one firms garner without facing the trade-off between asset exposure and borrowing costs. The latter, lenders' monetization of the default risk of tax-transparent but limited liability P3 project companies, is P3 endogenous risk - incident on governments through P3 fees. In order to avoid assessing the causality of PFI to risk transfer beyond that achievable in ASD with fixed-price contracts and performance adjustments. P3 value for money (VfM) assessments are shown to reference an implausible alternative of pure public provision. Therein. the value of P3 risk transfer with which a non-P3 alternative is decisively discredited is shown not to be analyzed. but rather imported from guesstimates on early P3s.

Over the last decade there has been an increasing trend by governments in Australia and throughout the world to use the skills and expertise of the private sector in developing and implementing infrastructure projects. The agreement for these projects must allocate responsibility for dealing with the risks which may arise to either the government directly, or on behalf of consumers, or to the private sponsor. / This thesis investigates risk allocation in the private provision of infrastructure, particularly in build-own-operate (BOO) and build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) projects. Its primary objective is to identify a framework for efficient risk allocation so that decision makers can assess the efficiency of the risk allocation in past projects and can attempt to increase the efficiency of the risk allocation in future projects. / This thesis defines an efficient situation as one where the risk allocation cannot be varied without the total risk premium for the entire project being increased, and approach based on Pareto optimality. As it is almost impossible to determine the true risk premium charged by parties for risk bearing, risks should be allocated to the party best able to control and manage them. This is explained to mean the party which is best able to control or manage the likelihood of the risk occurring or the size of its consequences if it does occur. It also means the party with the best access to reasonable mitigation techniques and the party which is least risk averse. Those exogenous risks which are not easily allocated in this way should be shared so that both parties, the sponsor and the government, have an incentive to manage them. Some of the options for sharing these risks are examined. / The application of the theory of efficient risk allocation is simplified by using a categorical risk framework. This approach is then tested on seven case studies of recent Australian projects spanning several industry sectors. Finally, the theoretical hypotheses and assumptions are tested in a survey of key participants in the Australian private infrastructure industry. This survey not only confirms that the basic theory for efficient risk allocation is valid but also identifies the key areas of concern to the private sector when it considers project risk allocation. Risks of concern are identified and possible options for risk sharing are investigated. / This thesis concludes that it is possible to achieve efficient risk allocations in practice, and that by achieving this outcome transaction costs can be reduced, allowing cheaper infrastructure services to be supplied to the community. However, several hurdles to achieving this outcome are identified. These include the peculiar characteristics of banks and their position in projects funded using non-recourse project finance, and the fact that most private firms fail to value potential upside risks as highly as they fear potential losses due to downside risks. / More work is needed to understand and overcome these hurdles if efficient risk allocation is to be achieved in the real world. It is only then that governments can be sure that they are providing private sector infrastructure services to the community at the lowest overall cost.

Over the last decade there has been an increasing trend by governments in Australia and throughout the world to use the skills and expertise of the private sector in developing and implementing infrastructure projects. The agreement for these projects must allocate responsibility for dealing with the risks which may arise to either the government directly, or on behalf of consumers, or to the private sponsor. / This thesis investigates risk allocation in the private provision of infrastructure, particularly in build-own-operate (BOO) and build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) projects. Its primary objective is to identify a framework for efficient risk allocation so that decision makers can assess the efficiency of the risk allocation in past projects and can attempt to increase the efficiency of the risk allocation in future projects. / This thesis defines an efficient situation as one where the risk allocation cannot be varied without the total risk premium for the entire project being increased, and approach based on Pareto optimality. As it is almost impossible to determine the true risk premium charged by parties for risk bearing, risks should be allocated to the party best able to control and manage them. This is explained to mean the party which is best able to control or manage the likelihood of the risk occurring or the size of its consequences if it does occur. It also means the party with the best access to reasonable mitigation techniques and the party which is least risk averse. Those exogenous risks which are not easily allocated in this way should be shared so that both parties, the sponsor and the government, have an incentive to manage them. Some of the options for sharing these risks are examined. / The application of the theory of efficient risk allocation is simplified by using a categorical risk framework. This approach is then tested on seven case studies of recent Australian projects spanning several industry sectors. Finally, the theoretical hypotheses and assumptions are tested in a survey of key participants in the Australian private infrastructure industry. This survey not only confirms that the basic theory for efficient risk allocation is valid but also identifies the key areas of concern to the private sector when it considers project risk allocation. Risks of concern are identified and possible options for risk sharing are investigated. / This thesis concludes that it is possible to achieve efficient risk allocations in practice, and that by achieving this outcome transaction costs can be reduced, allowing cheaper infrastructure services to be supplied to the community. However, several hurdles to achieving this outcome are identified. These include the peculiar characteristics of banks and their position in projects funded using non-recourse project finance, and the fact that most private firms fail to value potential upside risks as highly as they fear potential losses due to downside risks. / More work is needed to understand and overcome these hurdles if efficient risk allocation is to be achieved in the real world. It is only then that governments can be sure that they are providing private sector infrastructure services to the community at the lowest overall cost.

Doctor of Philosophy / Public private partnerships [PPPs] are a product of policies and processes to modernise the delivery of infrastructure-based services. An examination of the modernisation literature establishes the broad analytical frame within which this thesis investigates PPPs. The macro-level overview of the recent transformation of the Australian public sector confirms that the dominant principles underlying modernisation are grounded in new institutional economics [NIE] that are implemented through private-sector derived accounting and management implementation technologies. It highlights the contextual complexities stemming from Australia’s federal system of government, explaining the decision to focus on investigating PPP experiences in Victoria. At the conceptual level, PPPs rely on risk management and modernisation of service delivery to achieve value for money [VFM] for governments. In Victoria, 2000 signals a change in the modernisation role of PPPs. Thereafter, risk inherent in PPPs was reduced by excluding the contractor from the delivery of core social services. Also, the state began to develop a number of PPP policies to guide, aid, control and rationalise decision making in the pre-contracting stage, and to clarify objectives. Analysis of PPP contracts and the failure of one pre-2000 PPP hospital project are illustrative of the controversies identified in the literature about ‘hidden’ aims, the role of technologies designed provide ‘objective’ evidence of VFM inherent in PPPs at the time of contracting, and the ‘fallacy’ of risk transfer to private contractors. An examination of prison contracts indicates the changing nature of the management and control of PPPs in the execution stage. Analysis of pre-2000 prison contracts reveals that these projects were intended to drive significant financial and nonfinancial modernisation reforms throughout the correctional services system. Despite problems with contractual specification of performance and payment mechanisms, and the failure of one of the three pre-2000 prisons, recent evidence suggests, contrary to conclusions in the previous literature, that sector-wide modernisation objectives are being achieved in PPP prisons. PPPs have been criticised on the grounds that they enable governments to avoid accountability for service provision. A survey of the extent, focus and characteristics of the performance audit of PPPs confirms that little PPP auditing has been undertaken in Australia per se, and also that much of the performance auditing has focused on examining adherence to mandated procedures in the pre-contracting stage. However, this thesis demonstrates that the Victorian government has undertaken significant evaluation of the operation of its pre-2000 PPP prisons, and that its thinking and policy development reflect lessons learnt. The evidence presented in this thesis challenges findings in the previous literature that modernisation has delivered less than promised. This thesis confirms the potency of longitudinal research to investigate outcomes of what is essentially an iterative process of reform and that ‘successful’ implementation of modernisation change is sensitive to the context to be reformed. In finding that the presence of goodwill trust is critical to the implementation of recent modernisation reform in the correctional services sector (including in the PPP prisons), this thesis also confirms recent critiques of the power of NIE theories to explain contracting practices in the PPP setting.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-72). Also available on the World Wide Web.

"Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration from the Naval Postgraduate School, December 2004." / "MBA professional report"--Cover. Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-89). Also issued in paper format.

Thesis (M.E.S.)--Evergreen State College, 2007. / "June, 2007." Title from title screen (viewed 6/3/2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-50).

Diplomarbeit - Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und Kultur, Leipzig, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [142]-155)