Abstract
Despite an increasing adoption of cross sector collaborative models, especially contractual Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), as an important public services delivery modality, PPPs continue to experience serious institutional gaps that challenge the course of their implementation. This paper utilizes the new institutionalism theoretical lens and draws on interview and documentary evidence from a concession-type Infrastructure Public Private Partnership Project to foreground the different mechanisms used to remedy contractual gaps that are, inadvertently, necessarily or strategically, left open by contracting partners due to the lack of sophistication in setting efficient and precise institutions at the contracting phase. The study discerns the primacy of three socially constructed institutions complementation mechanisms including (a) contract renegotiations and amendments, (b) the development of new regulatory guidelines and standards, and (c) the establishment of inclusive coordinating structures. Based on the evidence, the paper argues that when confronted by emergent and unique challenges unanticipated in the elaborate contractual provisions, there still remains viable opportunity through an ongoing, concerted, and in a collective manner for responsible actors to complement initial institutions in a way necessary to overcome challenges and stay the main cause of the partnership. Other implications relating to specific sector structures and sector regulation are highlighted along with insights for future work.
Highlights
The popularity of contractual Public Private Partnership (PPPs) as an important approach for the organisation and provision of public services is increasingly evident (De Schepper et al, 2015; Hodge & Greve, 2010)
Understanding how actors redress in the course of PPP implementation has been an outstanding gap that this study fills
The case study has showed that in PPP context that is characterized by emergent realities, institutionally unanticipated, the institutional gaps are complementarily filled through socially constructed institutions
Summary
The popularity of contractual Public Private Partnership (PPPs) as an important approach for the organisation and provision of public services is increasingly evident (De Schepper et al, 2015; Hodge & Greve, 2010). Understood generally as a longterm co-operation between public and private actors in which actors develop mutual products and/or services and in which risk, costs and benefits are shared (Flyvbjerg, 2010; Koppenjan, 2005; Van den Hurk, 2016), PPPs rationalizations have ranged from fiscal and efficiency considerations in the delivery of public services to acknowledgment of power and influence of contemporary society (Bovis, 2014; Cohen and Boast, 2016; Newberry and Pallot, 2003). PPPs faced with major challenges as result of the circumstances that were not readily anticipated during the pre-contractual activities of planning, feasibility study, bidding and negotiation. Some scholars suggested clever contracting through proactive anticipation of the possible changes in the planning phase and providing for flexible contracts that are capable of adapting to the changing circumstances (De Schepper et al, 2014; Trebilcock and Rosenstock, 2015; Van den Hurk, 2016)
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