Investment in infrastructure can be a driving force of the economic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of shrinking fiscal space. Public-private partnerships (PPP) bring a promise of efficiency when carefully designed and managed, to avoid creating unnecessary fiscal risks. But fiscal illusions prevent an understanding the sources of fiscal risks, which arise in all infrastructure projects, and that in PPPs present specific characteristics that need to be addressed. PPP contracts are also affected by implicit fiscal risks when they are poorly designed, particularly when a government signs a PPP contract for a project with no financial sustainability. This paper reviews the advantages and inconveniences of PPPs, discusses the fiscal illusions affecting them, identifies a diversity of fiscal risks, and presents the essentials of PPP fiscal risk management.

The reports sets an operational framework for the Government of Ghana for managing fiscal commitments that stem from Public Privatre Partnersihp infrastructure projects.

The “National Policy on PPP” recently approved by the Government of Ghana (GoG) sets out the government’s intention to use Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to “improve the quality, cost-effectiveness, and timely provision of public infrastructure in Ghana.” The PPP Policy highlights the role of the government’s financial support to PPPs, as well as the importance of putting in place a system to manage the associated fiscal commitments (FCs). This study proposes an operational framework for managing fiscal obligations arising from PPPs in Ghana. This framework aims to ensure that PPP FCs are consistently identified and assessed during PPP project preparation, and that these assessments are fed into project approval. The framework will also ensure that PPP FCs are monitored, reported on, and budgeted for appropriately over the lifetime of PPP projects. To that end, the report outlines roles and responsibilities, concepts, and processes for managing PPP FCs, drawing on international standards and practices, bearing in mind existing institutions and capacities in Ghana. The report also suggests legislative additions and capacity-building needed to establish this framework in practice.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) refer to arrangements under which the private sector supplies infrastructure assets and infrastructure-based services that traditionally have been provided by the government. PPPs are used for a wide range of economic and social infrastructure projects, but they are used mainly to build and operate roads, bridges and tunnels, light rail networks, airports and air traffic control systems, prisons, water and sanitation plants, hospitals, schools, and public buildings. PPPs offer benefits similar to those offered by privatization, which is the sale of government-owned enterprises or assets. By the late 1990s, when privatization was losing much of its earlier momentum, PPPs began to be widely seen as a means of obtaining private sector capital and management expertise for infrastructure investment. After a modest start, a wave of PPPs is now beginning to sweep the world. This Special Issue paper provides an overview of some of the issues raised by PPPs, with a particular focus on their fiscal consequences. It also looks at government guarantees, which are used fairly widely to shield the private sector from risk and are a common feature of PPPs. And it examines the consequences of PPPs and guarantees for debt sustainability. The paper concludes with a list of measures that can maximize the benefits and minimize the fiscal risks associated with the use of PPPs. Various appendices augment the discussion by examining country experiences with PPPs, summarizing the statistical reporting framework used to discuss fiscal accounting and reporting, explaining accounting for risk transfer, examining how guarantees are modeled and estimated in Chile, and summarizing international accounting and reporting standards for contingent liabilities.

Introduction -- Legal framework -- Institutional framework -- Procuring and implementing PPP transactions -- Using public support for PPP projects -- Local currency finance

The purpose of this guide is to enhance the chances of effective partnerships being developed between the public and the private-sector by addressing one of the main obstacles to effective PPP project delivery: having the right information on the right projects for the right partners at the right time.

This guidebook offers training modules for the promotion of public-private partnerships in the delivery of public services. PPPs in theory are supposed to combine the best of both worlds. The private sector with its resources, management skills and technology; and the public sector with its regulatory actions and protection of the public interest provide a balance in delivering public service. PPPs though are also complex in nature, requiring different types of skills and new enabling institutions and they lead to changes in the status of public sector jobs. To work well, they require "good governance", that is, well-functioning institutions, transparent, efficient procedures and accountable and competent public and private sectors. This guidebook therefore seeks to elaborate best practice and is aimed at policymakers, government officials and the private sector.