TRANSPARENCY IN PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS: NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL?

Abstract

Scholars' criticism of transparency in public–private partnerships (PPPs) often focuses on ‘external’ transparency, that is, the extent to which internal information is visible to the outside world. However, to achieve external transparency,internaltransparency – the availability and inferability of information for the public procurer and the private party – is crucial. In this article we analyse input, process, and output transparency from three different perspectives (institutional, cognitive, and strategic) in fourPPPsin the Netherlands. We conclude that input transparency is high, but process and output transparency less so. Moreover, output transparency has gained importance inPPPs. Whether this is problematic depends on thePPPs' institutional environment. In some partnerships the desired output is uncontested and predetermined by clear standards in the institutional environment, whereas otherPPPsdeal with contested output norms, decreasing the partnerships' transparency. These results nuance the current debate on the lack of transparency inPPPs.