Obstacles can be overcome

Outlining the various governance obstacles Public/Private Partnerships (PPPs) present to small islands, Inter-American Development Bank Executive Director Caribbean, Kurt Kisto, said several investments must be made to ensure these are overcome.

“PPPs brings with it new governance challenges to small islands, particularly because the new governance architecture requires a change in the role of public servants in designing, awarding and servicing contracts, [and] in this regard, a lack of appropriate management capacity, problems of coordination and clear asymmetries in knowledge and expertise between the partners can pose significant challenges,” he stated.

According to him, governments therefore must invest in specialised expertise, effective risk evaluation and contract management, and legislate strong governance structures driven by transparency and accountability, and develop robust reporting mechanisms.

“Citizens in the region depend on their governments for the production and supply of public goods and services. In this regard, we must be cognisant to the possible cultural resistance, and as such, have strong effective mechanisms of consultation, communication and consensus building before embarking on PPPs,” Kisto added.

He further told those gathered at the recent Caribbean Public/Private Partnerships for Sustainable Growth forum at Hilton Barbados, that ensuring the necessary safeguards to the consumers of public goods and services must be an essential part of any PPP model. Strong systems of oversight, credible monitoring and evaluation systems,  proper modalities of regulation, pricing and efficient recourse to dispute resolution, will be necessary to facilitate successful PPPs.

“The participation by civil society should be weaved into any model as a useful and necessary part in the design and operations of PPPs in SIS, so as to foster consensus building, good governance, monitoring, evaluation, regulation and arbitration. We need to view civil society as a co-producer of public services and facilitate their participation in its delivery,” he argued. (JMB)