Tendering Issues and Improvement in Public Infrastructure Project Through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP)/Private Finance Initiative (PFI)

Abstract

In recent year, there have been an increasing market of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP)/Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for the development and operation of public infrastructure projects in Malaysia. The aim of PPP/PFI is to encourage greater participation of private sector in delivering public services. However, due to lack of knowledge on PPP/PFI procurement bring it being criticized especially in tendering process. Some PPP/PFI projects are the subject of lengthy political debate before they go to tender, causing further delay in their execution. Though, very little empirical studies have been conducted in the area of its overall implementation and tendering process. Therefore, the objectives of the research are to identify and understand the PPP/PFI implementation and practices in public infrastructure project in Malaysia; to determine issues and challenges in PPP/PFI tendering stage; and to propose PPP/PFI tendering improvement. The overall research process and methodology is divided into three phases: The first phase starts with extensive literature search on the current state and issues regarding to tendering in PPP/PFI public infrastructure projects and analysed the relevant documents of PPP/PFI. Based on these searches appropriate problem statement, research aim and objectives are established. The second phase deals with questionnaire survey. The study mainly focuses on concessionaires who are involved in PPP/PFI projects in Malaysia. The third phase is to synthesize the data collected from the literature review, document analysis and questionnaire survey. Finally, is to report the findings, conclusion, recommendation and further research based on the final outcomes. Expected outcomes from the research project are to provide new insight on the theoretical perspectives on tendering for public infrastructure project through PPP/PFI implementation.