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118-587: Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Company was established in 1999 under the Companies Act of 1994. The purpose of the IIFC is to encourage and support public-private partnership (3P) in Bangladesh. The company provides consultancy services to public agencies and projects regarding the development of infrastructure to encourage private investments. In 2004, M Saifur Rahman , Minister of Finance and Planning, criticized

236-407: A rent-seeking behavior, which leads to spiraling costs for users and/or taxpayers in the operation phase of the project. Some public–private partnerships, when the development of new technologies is involved, include profit-sharing agreements. This generally involves splitting revenues between the inventor and the public once a technology is commercialized. Profit-sharing agreements may stand over

354-467: A building contractor, a maintenance company, and one or more equity investors. The two former are typically equity holders in the project, who make decisions but are only repaid when the debts are paid, while the latter is the project's creditor (debt holder). It is the SPV that signs the contract with the government and with subcontractors to build the facility and then maintain it. A typical PPP example would be

472-834: A certain measure of success, such as using cell phone applications for monitoring and disseminating polling station results and employing domestic or international election observers. However, governments may simply alter the type of manipulation or where it occurs in order to deceive observers and monitoring agencies. Governments, politicians, and political parties are more likely to resort to electoral manipulation and fraud when they believe they might be removed from office and when they face few institutional constraints to their power. Low political competition has also been linked to some forms of manipulation, such as abolishing presidential term limits. Well-connected candidates are more likely to resort to vote count fraud. Governments may engage in electoral manipulation not only to obtain victory at

590-434: A corrupt equilibrium "where voters are generally willing to retain corrupt politicians", referred to as a "political corruption trap". This high corruption equilibrium is difficult to break due to interaction between corrupt politicians, voters who tolerate and retain corrupt politicians, and potential entrants or challengers who also engage in corrupt practices, leading to the maintenance of corruption. Economic development

708-482: A debate between trustees and delegates, though the lack of objective superior outcomes in projects decided by vote as opposed to committee in the Afghanistan experiment indicate neither is superior to the other in determining which public goods should be given priority. Other research indicates that voters use elections to hold politicians accountable for the provision of public goods. In India, rural areas are charged

826-466: A decrease in vote share as a result of poor performance, they are less likely to see an increase in vote share for good performance. Selection—voters choosing candidates based on who will best represent their interests—is another method by which voters hold their representatives accountable. These methods of accountability can occur simultaneously, with voters holding representatives accountable using both sanctioning and selection. These conclusions rely on

944-399: A definition, the term has been defined by major entities. For example, The OECD formally defines public–private partnerships as "long term contractual arrangements between the government and a private partner whereby the latter delivers and funds public services using a capital asset, sharing the associated risks". According to David L. Weimer and Aidan R. Vining, "A P3 typically involves

1062-424: A dilemma for accountability. If individuals are held accountable or responsible, individuals who could not have prevented the results are either unfairly punished, or they "take responsibility" in a symbolic ritual without suffering any consequences. If only organizations are held accountable, then all individuals in the organization are equally blameworthy or all are excused. Various solutions have been proposed. One

1180-475: A fixed period of time or in perpetuity. Using PPPs have been justified in various ways over time. Advocates generally argue that PPPs enable the public sector to harness the expertise and efficiencies that the private sector can bring to the delivery of certain facilities and services traditionally procured and delivered by the public sector. On the other hand, critics suggest that PPPs are part of an ideological program that seeks to privatize public services for

1298-407: A flat rate for electricity, but in the province of Uttar Pradesh, line loss—electricity that is consumed but not billed—is significantly higher in election years than non-election years, and increases in line loss reliably predict electoral gains. Voters rewarded incumbent politicians with a 12% increase in party seats in response to a 10% increase of unbilled electricity, in 2007 elections. In Ghana,

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1416-459: A given election or to remain in office longer, but also for post-election reasons, such as reducing the strength of the opposition or increasing their own bargaining power in the subsequent period. Politicians may be incentivized to provide public goods as a means of accountability. The ability of voters to attribute the credit and blame of outcomes also determines the extent of public goods provision. Research suggests that public goods provision

1534-692: A government and private sector institutions. Typically, it involves private capital financing government projects and services up-front, and then drawing revenues from taxpayers and/or users for profit over the course of the PPP contract. Public–private partnerships have been implemented in multiple countries and are primarily used for infrastructure projects. Although they are not compulsory, PPPs have been employed for building, equipping, operating and maintaining schools, hospitals, transport systems, and water and sewerage systems. Cooperation between private actors, corporations and governments has existed since

1652-450: A hospital building financed and constructed by a private developer and then leased to the hospital authority. The private developer then acts as landlord, providing housekeeping and other non-medical services, while the hospital itself provides medical services. The SPV links the firms responsible of the building phase and the operating phase together. Hence there is a strong incentives in the building stage to make investments with regard to

1770-565: A measure of job performance during an incumbent's term that has implications for whether the official will retain their seat, or if reelection will even be sought. These approval ratings predict election outcomes when combined with other factors included in Bayesian Model Averaging forecasts. In the United States, senator job approval ratings affect whether a senator will retire, the quality of candidates that seek to challenge them,

1888-470: A more informed electorate which holds incumbent officials accountable. While evidence supports the positive impact of press freedom on political accountability, other work highlights the significance of factors such as media concentration and ownership as government tools for influencing or controlling news content. Non-democratic regimes use media for a variety of purposes such as – (i) to enhance regime resilience, (ii) censor, or (iii) strategically distract

2006-552: A private entity financing, constructing, or managing a project in return for a promised stream of payments directly from government or indirectly from users over the projected life of the project or some other specified period of time". A 2013 study published in State and Local Government Review found that definitions of public-private partnerships vary widely between municipalities: "Many public and private officials tout public–private partnerships for any number of activities, when in truth

2124-486: A project cheaper for taxpayers. This can be done by cutting corners, designing the project so as to be more profitable in the operational phase, charging user fees, and/or monetizing aspects of the projects not covered by the contract. For P3 schools in Nova Scotia , this latter aspect has included restricting the use of schools' fields and interior walls, and charging after-hours facility access to community groups at 10 times

2242-452: A radical reform of government service provision. In 1997, the new British government of Tony Blair 's Labour Party expanded the PFI but sought to shift the emphasis to the achievement of "value for money", mainly through an appropriate allocation of risk. Blair created Partnerships UK (PUK), a new semi-independent organization to replace the previous pro-PPP government institutions. Its mandate

2360-602: A range of costs, the exact nature of which has changed over time and varies by jurisdiction. One thing that does remain consistent, however, is the favoring of "risk transfer" to the private partner, to the detriment of the public sector comparator. Value for money assessment procedures were incorporated into the PFI and its Australian and Canadian counterparts beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s. A 2012 study showed that value-for-money frameworks were still inadequate as an effective method of evaluating PPP proposals. The problem

2478-428: A representative democracy can increase accountability when politicians learn about voters' preferences. A 2016 experiment in Afghanistan regarding rural development projects, however, finds that when voters directly prioritize their preferences at the ballot box, they perceive the quality of local government to be higher than when a governing committee prioritizes development projects. These contrasting outcomes highlight

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2596-691: A signal of poor performance, motivating them to sanction an incumbent. As the model of retrospective voting suggests that voters incentivize good politicians' behavior by rewarding good performance and punishing bad performance, citizens are expected to sanction corrupt politicians. However, studies suggest that though voters have a distaste for corruption, they often fail to punish corrupt incumbents; some of them receive benefits from their representatives' corrupt practices, and prefer to retain this type of politician. In high-corruption contexts, voters may become more tolerant of or even prefer corrupt politicians because others are also perceived as corrupt, leading to

2714-458: A transfer of risk, but when things go wrong the risk stays with the public sector and, at the end of the day, the public because the companies expect to get paid. The health board should now be seeking an exit from this failed arrangement with Consort and at the very least be looking to bring facilities management back in-house. Furthermore, assessments ignore the practices of risk transfers to contractors under traditional procurement methods. As for

2832-405: A vested interest in recommending the PPP option over the traditional public procurement method. The lack of transparency surrounding individual PPP projects makes it difficult to draft independent value-for-money assessments. A number of Australian studies of early initiatives to promote private investment in infrastructure concluded that in most cases, the schemes being proposed were inferior to

2950-475: Is associated with a decrease in corruption. Freedom of the press contributes to the reduction of corruption by exposing corrupt actions. Documentation on how a corrupt government (e.g. Alberto Fujimori 's government from 1998 to 2000 in Peru ) can strategically undermine checks-and-balances institutions, suggests that the news media—i.e. newspapers and mainly television—is crucial to the dissemination of information to

3068-498: Is borne exclusively by the users of the service, for example, by toll road users such as in the case of Toronto 's Yonge Street at the dawn of the 19th century, and the more recent Highway 407 in Ontario . In other types (notably the PFI), capital investment is made by the private sector on the basis of a contract with the government to provide agreed-on services, and the cost of providing

3186-428: Is conditional on being able to attribute outcomes to politicians as opposed to civil servants. This attribution can be enhanced by more short-run and visible inputs and outcomes such as famine relief or access to drinking water, whereas lower-visibility issues such as sanitation and education may be more difficult to attribute credit for and thus less likely to provide for. Another condition determining how voters use

3304-477: Is established or renewed, the financing is, from the public sector's perspective, "on-balance sheet". According to PPP advocates, the public sector will regularly benefit from significantly deferred cash flows. This viewpoint has been contested through research that shows that a majority of PPP projects ultimately cost significantly more than traditional public ones. In the European Union, the fact that PPP debt

3422-412: Is further evidence suggesting higher quality of life, civil liberties, and human development in electoral autocracies, lending credence to the theory that autocratic rulers use elections as a bellwether against popular discontent and citizen opposition, and in turn increase public goods provision to dampen the grievances of disgruntled citizens, even in non-democracies. While the introduction of elections

3540-482: Is generally thought to improve public goods provision, in some cases, researchers have shown that it may reduce its quality. For example, the introduction of direct elections for local district office in Indonesia resulted in political interference in the hiring process for bureaucrats in the public education sector, reducing the quality of education provision; politicians were incentivized to dole out patronage positions in

3658-659: Is good records management. "Accountability" derives from the late Latin accomptare (to account), a prefixed form of computare (to calculate), which in turn is derived from putare (to reckon). While the word itself does not appear in English until its use in 13th century Norman England, the concept of account-giving has ancient roots in record-keeping activities related to governance and money-lending systems that first developed in Ancient Egypt , Israel , Babylon , Greece , and later Rome . Political accountability

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3776-518: Is lower than returns for the private funder. PPPs are closely related to concepts such as privatization and the contracting out of government services. The secrecy surrounding their financial details complexifies the process of evaluating whether PPPs have been successful. PPP advocates highlight the sharing of risk and the development of innovation , while critics decry their higher costs and issues of accountability . Evidence of PPP performance in terms of value for money and efficiency, for example,

3894-479: Is mixed and often unavailable. There is no consensus about how to define a PPP. The term can cover hundreds of different types of long-term contracts with a wide range of risk allocations, funding arrangements, and transparency requirements. The advancement of PPPs, as a concept and a practice, is a product of the new public management of the late 20th century, the rise of neoliberalism, and globalization pressures. Despite there being no formal consensus regarding

4012-449: Is not rare; some estimates are that in the 1990s and 2000s, up to one fourth of elections suffered some form of substantial manipulation. This includes a large array of pre-election and election-day tactics, such as outlawing rival parties and candidates, employing violence and intimidation , and manipulating voter registration and vote count. Some efforts to improve accountability by preventing electoral manipulation and fraud have obtained

4130-468: Is not recorded as debt and remains largely "off-balance-sheet" has become a major concern. Indeed, keeping the PPP project and its contingent liabilities "off balance sheet" means that the true cost of the project is hidden. According to the International Monetary Fund , economic ownership of the asset should determine whether to record PPP-related assets and liabilities in the government's or

4248-457: Is responsible, and the Private sector assumes that risk at a cost for the taxpayer. If the value of the risk transfer is appraised too high, then the government is overpaying for P3 projects. Incidentally, a 2018 UK Parliament report underlines that some private investors have made large returns from PPP deals, suggesting that departments are overpaying for transferring the risks of projects to

4366-475: Is that it is unclear what the catchy term "value-for-money" means in the technical details relating to their practical implementation. A Scottish auditor once qualified this use of the term as "technocratic mumbo-jumbo". Project promoters often contract a PPP unit or one of the Big Four accounting firms to conduct the value for money assessments. Because these firms also offer PPP consultancy services, they have

4484-451: Is that most of the up-front financing is made through the private sector. The way this financing is done differs significantly by country. For P3s in the UK, bonds are used rather than bank loans . In Canada, P3 projects usually use loans that must be repaid within five years, and the projects are refinanced at a later date. In some types of public–private partnership, the cost of using the service

4602-438: Is through elections that citizens hold governments accountable for past performance. The role of elections in fostering accountability is often undermined by electoral manipulation and fraud. By preventing citizens from removing leaders through elections based on their performance in office, electoral manipulation breaks down accountability and may undercut the consolidation of democratic institutions. Electoral manipulation

4720-400: Is to broaden the criteria for individual responsibility so that individuals are held accountable for not anticipating failures in the organization. Another solution, recently proposed by Thompson, is to hold individuals accountable for the design of the organization, both retrospectively and prospectively. Accountability is an element of a responsibility assignment matrix which indicates who

4838-433: Is traditionally based on school and classroom rules, combined with sanctions for infringement. In contrast, some educational establishments such as Sudbury schools believe that students are personally responsible for their acts, and that traditional schools do not permit students to choose their course of action fully; they do not permit students to embark on the course, once chosen; and they do not permit students to suffer

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4956-471: Is ultimately answerable for the correct and thorough completion of a deliverable or task, as well as the delegation of the work to those responsible. With the increase in public service provided by private entities, especially in Britain and the United States, some have called for increased political accountability mechanisms for otherwise non-political entities. Legal scholar Anne Davies, for instance, argues that

5074-420: Is when a politician makes choices on behalf of the people, and the people have the ability to reward or sanction the politician. In representative democracies, citizens delegate power to elected officials through periodic elections, and such officials are empowered to represent or act in the citizens' interest. A challenge is how to see to it that those with such power, who presumably have divergent interests from

5192-583: The Conservative government of John Major in the United Kingdom introduced the Private finance initiative (PFI), the first systematic program aimed at encouraging public–private partnerships. The 1992 program focused on reducing the public-sector borrowing requirement , although, as already noted, the effect on public accounts was largely illusory. Initially, the private sector was unenthusiastic about PFI, and

5310-508: The Infrastructure Development Company Limited and Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Center for failing to properly encourage investment. It signed an agreement with Power Grid Company of Bangladesh to lease out the fiber optic cable from Chittagong to Dhaka. According to a 2008 study, the IIFC suffered from a lack of formal or informal power, and so was involved in less than half of the 3P projects developed in

5428-426: The public sector , nonprofit , private ( corporate ), and individual contexts. In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgment of and assumption of responsibility for actions, products , decisions, and policies such as administration , governance, and implementation, including the obligation to report, justify, and be answerable for resulting consequences. In governance, accountability has expanded beyond

5546-455: The amount of money the senator can raise to seek reelection if they decide to run, and the outcome of the election itself. Strategic incumbent senators will seek reelection less when their approval ratings are low during their time in office. Traditional leaders in Zambia provide local public goods despite the fact that they lack an electoral incentive to do so. Many customary chiefs never leave

5664-453: The assessment of PPPs which focused heavily on value for money . Heather Whiteside defines P3 "Value for money" as: Not to be confused with lower overall project costs, value for money is a concept used to evaluate P3 private-partner bids against a hypothetical public sector comparator designed to approximate the costs of a fully public option (in terms of design, construction, financing, and operations). P3 value for money calculations consider

5782-411: The assumption that voters do not observe the policy implemented by the incumbent, but do know their own welfare. Some factors make it harder for voters to sanction incumbents. When politicians do not have control over outcomes, it becomes harder to hold them accountable. Additionally, when organizations are unable to monitor elections and provide information to voters, then voters struggle to sanction

5900-418: The autocrat's powers according to selectorate theory . Selectorates are those on whom a leader depends in order to hold onto power, and those who have the ability to depose a leader. When a selectorate's hold on power is not overly dependent on the leader in office, selectorates can remove poorly performing leaders, and this accountability by selectorates renders it possible for autocracies to perform better for

6018-490: The awareness of monitoring in an upcoming election, increases job performance among incumbents, who spend more of their annual Constituency Development Fund allocations from the central government on public goods for the electorate. In locales with weaker institutions, when citizens elect leaders with higher levels of competency, these officials have a greater ability to overcome the barriers of bad informal institutions, and deliver more goods and long-term investment projects for

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6136-536: The basic definition of "being called to account for one's actions". It is frequently described as an account-giving relationship between individuals, e.g. "A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A's (past or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct." Accountability cannot exist without proper accounting practices; in other words, an absence of accounting means an absence of accountability. Another key area that contributes to accountability

6254-656: The benefit of all. Beyond that, institutions can act as credible restraints on autocracy as well. In democracies, voluntary associations, interest groups, and associational activity can improve the performance of the government. One study showed that civil society organizations such as NGOs can increase the performance of local government according to the central government's standards by monitoring and disclosing information about local government performance in authoritarian regimes like China. Solidarity groups in rural China, in which members share moral obligations and interests, can hold local officials accountable as well when (i)

6372-779: The best interest of the citizens win reelection and those who do not lose them." Representatives can be held accountable through two mechanisms: electoral replacement and rational anticipation. In electoral replacement, citizens vote to replace representatives who are out of step with their interests. Rational anticipation requires that representatives anticipate the consequences of being out of step with their constituency and then govern in accordance with citizens' wishes to avoid negative consequences. Accountability can still be achieved even if citizens are not perfectly knowledgeable about their representatives' actions; as long as representatives believe that they will be held accountable by citizens, they will still be motivated to act in accordance with

6490-541: The bureaucracy (e.g., by threatening to transfer noncompliant bureaucrats). Low accountability for corruption is difficult to combat, and some anti-corruption activities may also lead to perverse consequences. For example, in places where private sector work pays better than public sector work (e.g., China), highly qualified individuals engaging in public sector work may only find such work attractive because it allows for further compensation through corrupt activities. Government anti-corruption activities can therefore decrease

6608-451: The citizens' interests. Electoral accountability refers to citizens using their vote to sanction or reward politicians. Some researchers have considered accountability using formal theory , which makes assumptions about the state of the world to draw larger conclusions. Voters can hold representatives accountable through the process of sanctioning—voting the incumbent out of office in response to poor performance. While politicians face

6726-568: The citizens, nonetheless act in their best interests. Citizens can rely on rewards or sanctions to reward or threaten politicians who might otherwise act in a manner that is antithetical to the people's interest. Accountability occurs when citizens only vote to re-elect representatives who act in their interests, and if representatives then select policies that will help them be re-elected. "Governments are 'accountable' if voters can discern whether governments are acting in their interest and sanction them appropriately, so that those incumbents who act in

6844-614: The communities they lead and depend on local sources for a significant portion of their income; thus, traditional leaders may facilitate bringing in local public goods and benefit from the community's development over time just like stationary bandits in Olson's argument. Political corruption refers to "the misuse or the abuse of public office for private gains". Corrupt practices include fraud, appropriation of public funds, and accepting bribes. Corruption can cause people to negatively evaluate politicians, since citizens may perceive corruption as

6962-476: The conditions that make unelected leaders represent the interests of the general public. Political changes after protests can be the result of the protests per se , or symptoms of shifts in political preferences underneath the observable phenomena of the protests. One study of the Tea Party movement in the United States has shown that protests per se have an impact on political change. Other scholars studied

7080-564: The connection of the poor to water and sanitation, water tariffs have increased out of reach of poor households. Water multinationals are withdrawing from developing countries, and the World Bank is reluctant to provide support. Accountability Accountability , in terms of ethics and governance , is equated with answerability, culpability , liability , and the expectation of account-giving. As in an aspect of governance , it has been central to discussions related to problems in

7198-430: The consequences of the course, once taken. Freedom of choice, freedom of action, freedom to bear the results of action are considered the three great freedoms that constitute personal responsibility. Sudbury schools claim that " ' Ethics ' is a course taught by life experience". They adduce that the essential ingredient for acquiring values—and for moral action—is personal responsibility, that schools will become involved in

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7316-625: The constituency without needing to raise taxes. Additionally, many local elections are for positions that involve performing jobs with a single function, such as a school board member or a sheriff . These elected officials are held accountable to their positions mainly through information provided to the public through the media. When the media focuses attention on data trends associated with these positions, constituents are then able to use this information to retrospectively vote for or against an incumbent based on their performance in office. Approval ratings generated through public opinion polling create

7434-773: The contracting of government services (including military) and the resulting accountability gap was highlighted following the Nisour Square massacre perpetrated by the Blackwater security firm in Iraq. As defined by National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), accountability is "[a] program, often legislated, that attributes the responsibility for student learning to teachers, school administrators, or students. Test results typically are used to judge accountability, and often consequences are imposed for shortcomings." Student accountability

7552-496: The contractor. One of the main criticisms of public–private partnerships is the lack of accountability and transparency associated with these projects. Part of the reason why evidence of PPP performance is often unavailable is that most financial details of P3s are under the veil of commercial confidentiality provisions, and unavailable to researchers and the public. Around the world, opponents of P3s have launched judicial procedures to access greater P3 project documentation than

7670-711: The contractual complexities and rigidities they entail". In the United Kingdom, many private finance initiative programs ran dramatically over budget and have not provided value for money for the taxpayer, with some projects costing more to cancel than to complete. An in-depth study conducted by the National Audit Office of the United Kingdom concluded that the private finance initiative model had proved to be more expensive and less efficient in supporting hospitals, schools, and other public infrastructure than public financing. A treasury select committee stated that 'PFI

7788-401: The cost of rural farmers in the 1980s to prevent urban unrest, which is more visible and easier to mobilize than rural protests. Belsky et al. point out that whereas, under more democratic governance, accountability is built into the institution of the state by a habit of regular elections, accountability in autocratic regimes relies on a selectorate—a group that legitimizes or delegitimizes

7906-413: The cost of the complex scientific laboratory, which was ultimately built, was very much larger than estimated. On the other hand, Allyson Pollock argues that in many PFI projects risks are not in fact transferred to the private sector and, based on the research findings of Pollock and others, George Monbiot argues that the calculation of risk in PFI projects is highly subjective, and is skewed to favor

8024-461: The costs to be larger than what was projected. Another risk within this area is with change of governance from differing political representatives could lead to projects being diminished or reduction of the allocated budget. This is common within PPPs as different political actors are likely to scrutinise their opponents based on their ideological positions. Private monopolies created by PPPs can generate

8142-561: The country. In 2010, the Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Company was hired by Bangladesh Bridge Authority to provide an estimated cost of Dhaka Elevated Expressway . The previous consultant, AECOM Australia Propriety Ltd, had provided estimate that Bangladesh Bridge Authority thought was too high. On 29 March 2021, Abdul Baki, additional secretary in charge of World Bank Wing at the Ministry of Finance,

8260-478: The education sector, especially in election years, and where such positions were added, student test scores were lower. Governments are held accountable if citizens can punish or reward the government to influence it to pursue their best interests. While scholars who study democratic theory emphasize the role of elections in ensuring accountability, another strand of scholars investigates non-electoral forms of accountability in democracies and non-democracies and

8378-479: The effect of protests on political changes in developing countries. Mass protests instigated by economic hardship and political repression occurred in 16 sub-Saharan African countries, and 21 governments in the region implemented significant political reforms, such as the adoption of multi-party elections. Authoritarian regimes in Africa distorted the market and reduced the cost of farm produce in favor of urban workers at

8496-432: The government accountable tend to be from wealthier segments of society. For example, a study of elected versus appointed property assessors in the state of New York shows that the election of property assessors leads to policies that severely undertax wealthier homes relative to poorer homes. Studies on political accountability have emphasized the key role of elections in promoting accountability in democratic settings. It

8614-410: The government of the day appear more fiscally responsible , while offloading the costs of their projects to service users or future governments. In Canada, many auditors general have condemned this practice, and forced governments to include PPP projects "on-balance sheet". On PPP projects where the public sector intends to compensate the private sector through availability payments once the facility

8732-427: The government retains ownership of the facility and/or remains responsible for public service delivery. Others argue that they exist on a continuum of privatization, P3s being a more limited form of privatization than the outright sale of public assets, but more extensive than simply contracting out government services. Because "privatization" has a negative connotation in some circles, supporters of P3s generally take

8850-502: The idea that the private sector is inherently better at managing risk, there has been no comprehensive study comparing risk management by the public sector and by P3s. Auditor Generals of Quebec , Ontario and New Brunswick have publicly questioned P3 rationales based on a transfer of risk, the latter stating he was "unable to develop any substantive evidence supporting risk transfer decisions". Furthermore, many PPP concessions proved to be unstable and required to be renegotiated to favor

8968-527: The improvement of road conditions is linked to an increasing vote share for incumbent parties. Both of these research outcomes hinge on voters being able to attribute the service of public goods to politicians. Politicians may also have incentives to respond to pressure for public goods provision in electoral autocracies. There is evidence that as autocratic governments lose seats in their party's legislatures, they respond by increasing spending on public goods such as education, healthcare, and pensions. There

9086-464: The inception of sovereign states , notably for the purpose of tax collection and colonization . Contemporary "public–private partnerships" came into being around the end of the 20th century. They were aimed at increasing the private sector's involvement in public administration . They were seen by governments around the world as a method of financing new or refurbished public sector assets outside their balance sheet . While PPP financing comes from

9204-425: The incumbent. When voters are better informed about the incumbent's performance, the incumbent is more vulnerable to voter sanctioning. Furthermore, when incumbents face sanctioning, challengers are more likely to enter the race. While elections provide a mechanism which can theoretically increase government accountability to citizens, they may instead lead to less egalitarian policy outcomes, because those who hold

9322-479: The information asymmetries between citizens and government and provides a way of overcoming obstacles preventing political action. When elected officials and the public gain information, the public is better equipped to hold politicians accountable and politicians are more responsive. Ferraz & Finan demonstrate this in the Brazilian context. In their work, they find releasing audit reports prior to elections creates

9440-662: The internal standard of individual and group conduct as well as external factors, such as sustainable economic and ecologic strategies. Also, ethical accountability plays an important role in academic fields, such as laboratory experiments and field research. Debates around the practice of ethical accountability on the part of researchers in the social field – whether professional or others – were explored by Norma R.A. Romm in her work on Accountability in Social Research , and elsewhere. Researcher accountability implies that researchers are cognizant of, and take some responsibility for,

9558-473: The lack of investor rights guarantees, commercial confidentiality laws, and dedicated state spending on public infrastructure in these countries made the implementation of public–private partnership in transition economies difficult. PPPs in the countries usually can't rely on stable revenues from user fees either. The World Bank 's Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Forum attempts to mitigate these challenges. A defining aspect of many infrastructure P3s

9676-419: The limited "bottom line" sheets available on the project's websites. When they are successful, the documents they receive are often heavily redacted. A 2007 survey of U.S. city managers revealed that communities often fail to sufficiently monitor PPPs: "For instance, in 2002, only 47.3% of managers involved with private firms as delivery partners reported that they evaluate that service delivery. By 2007, that

9794-417: The line between public institutions and private entities like corporations is becoming blurred in certain areas of public service in the United Kingdom, and that this can compromise political accountability in those areas. She and others argue that some administrative law reform is necessary to address this accountability gap. With respect to the public/private overlap in the United States, public concern over

9912-475: The majority of P3 projects in Australia. Wall Street firms have increased their interest in PPP since the 2008 financial crisis. Government sometimes make in kind contributions to a PPP, notably with the transfer of existing assets. In projects that are aimed at creating public goods , like in the infrastructure sector, the government may provide a capital subsidy in the form of a one-time grant so as to make

10030-404: The modern electric grid . In Newfoundland, Robert Gillespie Reid contracted to operate the railways for fifty years from 1898, though originally they were to become his property at the end of the period. The late 20th and early 21st century saw a clear trend toward governments across the globe making greater use of various PPP arrangements. Pressure to change the model of public procurement

10148-733: The operating stage. These investments can be desirable but may also be undesirable (e.g., when the investments not only reduce operating costs but also reduce service quality). Public infrastructure is a relatively low-risk, high-reward investment, and combining it with complex arrangements and contracts that guarantee and secure the cash flows make PPP projects prime candidates for project financing . The equity investors in SPVs are usually institutional investors such as pension funds, life insurance companies, sovereign wealth and superannuation funds, and banks. Major P3 investors include AustralianSuper , OMERS and Dutch state-owned bank ABN AMRO , which funded

10266-676: The political process. Scholarly literature about corruption finds mixed results about the role of political institutions on the level of a country's corruption. For example, some scholarly research suggests that more horizontal accountability, or oversight across branches of government, would generally decrease corruption. However, other research shows that increased oversight could increase corruption when actors in one branch can pressure actors in another to collude; in Ghana, bureaucrats are more likely to engage in corruption on behalf of politicians when politicians have higher levels of discretion to oversee

10384-430: The position that P3s do not constitute privatization, while P3 opponents argue that they do. The Canadian Union of Public Employees describes P3s as "privatization by stealth". Governments have used such a mix of public and private endeavors throughout history. Muhammad Ali of Egypt utilized " concessions " in the early 1800s to obtain public works for minimal cost while the concessionaires' companies made most of

10502-482: The potential impact of their ways of doing research – and of writing it up – on the social fields of which the research is part. Accountability is linked to considering carefully, and being open to challenge in relation to, one's choices concerning how research agendas are framed and the styles in which research results are written. The traceability of actions performed on a system to a specific system entity (user, process, device) also affects accountability. For example,

10620-528: The press": It has disrupted traditional sources of funding, and new forms of Internet journalism have replaced only a tiny fraction of what's been lost. Various systems have been proposed for increasing the funds available for investigative journalism that allow individual citizens to direct small amounts of government funds to news outlets or investigative journalism projects of their choice. Accountability standards have been established that organizations can voluntarily commit to. Standards apply in particular to

10738-418: The private corporation's balance sheet is not straightforward. The effectiveness of PPPs as cost-saving venture has been refuted by numerous studies. Research has showed that on average, governments pay more for PPPs projects than for traditional publicly financed projects. The higher cost of P3s is attributed to these systemic factors: Sometimes, private partners manage to overcome these costs and provide

10856-593: The private sector, one of the Treasury's stated benefits of PPP. Supporters of P3s claim that risk is successfully transferred from public to private sectors as a result of P3, and that the private sector is better at risk management . As an example of successful risk transfer, they cite the case of the National Physical Laboratory . This deal ultimately caused the collapse of the building contractor Laser (a joint venture between Serco and John Laing ) when

10974-484: The private sector, these projects are always paid for either through taxes or by users of the service, or a mix of both. PPPs are structurally more expensive than publicly financed projects because of the private sector's higher cost of borrowing, resulting in users or taxpayers footing the bill for disproportionately high interest costs. PPPs also have high transaction costs . PPPs are controversial as funding tools, largely over concerns that public return on investment

11092-471: The private sector: When private companies take on a PFI project, they are deemed to acquire risks the state would otherwise have carried. These risks carry a price, which proves to be remarkably responsive to the outcome you want. A paper in the British Medical Journal shows that before risk was costed, the hospital schemes it studied would have been built much more cheaply with public funds. After

11210-618: The profits from projects such as railroads and dams. Much of the early infrastructure of the United States was built by what can be considered public–private partnerships. This includes the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike road in Pennsylvania, which was initiated in 1792, an early steamboat line between New York and New Jersey in 1808; many of the railroads, including the nation's first railroad , chartered in New Jersey in 1815; and most of

11328-403: The profits of private entities. PPPs are often structured so that borrowing for the project does not appear on the balance sheet of the public-sector body seeking to make a capital investment. Rather, the borrowing is incurred by the private-sector vehicle implementing the project, with or without an explicit backup guarantee of the loan by the public body. On PPP projects where the cost of using

11446-473: The project economically viable. In other cases, the government may support the project by providing revenue subsidies, including tax breaks or by guaranteed annual revenues for a fixed period. Within public-private partnerships (PPPs), there are various risks associated. One risk common within PPPs is the lack of proper or accurate cost evaluation. Oftentimes the estimated costs of a project will not properly account for delays or unexpected events, leading to

11564-468: The provision of public goods to hold leaders accountable is whether the prioritization of public goods is determined either directly via vote or delegated to a governing body. An experiment in New Mexico regarding proposed spending during the state's 2008 special summer legislative session provides evidence that legislators update their positions when learning about voters' policy preferences, indicating that

11682-515: The public how well an incumbent is performing their job duties, in a district with an upcoming competitive election, increase the performance of the politician for the rest of their term. In contrast to these works, a meta-analysis released in 2019 uncovers no effects from CSO voter information campaigns on political accountability after examining the results from seven trials across six countries. In Ghana, election-day monitoring of polling centers for district-level positions, as well as an increase in

11800-1021: The public sector was opposed to its implementation. In 1993, the Chancellor of the Exchequer described its progress as "disappointingly slow". To help promote and implement the policy, Major created institutions staffed with people linked with the City of London , accountancy and consultancy firms who had a vested interest in the success of PFI. Around the same time, PPPs were being initiated haphazardly in various OECD countries. The first governments to implement them were ideologically neoliberal and short on revenues : they were thus politically and fiscally inclined to try out alternative forms of public procurement. These early PPP projects were usually pitched by wealthy and politically connected business magnates . This explains why each countries experimenting with PPPs started in different sectors . At that time, PPPs were seen as

11918-477: The public. Control of the media may also be especially beneficial to incumbents in new or developing democracies, who consider media control a spoil of office. An analysis of the evolution of mass media in the U.S. and Europe since World War II noted mixed results from the growth of the Internet: "The digital revolution has been good for freedom of expression [and] information [but] has had mixed effects on freedom of

12036-446: The public. There is also evidence about the importance of local media, such as local radio stations, in holding corrupt incumbents accountable and in promoting non-corrupt politicians. Information about corruption may not only lead to vote losses for the incumbent parties, but also for challenging parties, as well the erosion of partisan attachments, which implies that information about corruption also provokes citizens' disengagement from

12154-427: The quality and overall representativeness of the bureaucracy as a result. On the other hand, there is evidence that, despite strategic evasion and unintentional consequences, anti-corruption initiatives are beneficial, as they lower malfeasance and increase social welfare, even where strategic evasion is relatively large. Within an organization, the principles and practices of ethical accountability aim to improve both

12272-476: The rate of non-P3 schools. In Ontario, a 2012 review of 28 projects showed that the costs were on average 16% lower for traditional publicly procured projects than for PPPs. A 2014 report by the Auditor General of Ontario said that the province overpaid by $ 8 billion through PPPs. In response to these negative findings about the costs and quality of P3 projects, proponents developed formal procedures for

12390-489: The relationship is contractual, a franchise, or the load shedding of some previously public service to a private or nonprofit entity." A more general term for such agreements is "shared service delivery", in which public-sector entities join with private firms or non-profit organizations to provide services to citizens. There is a semantic debate pertaining to whether public–private partnerships constitute privatization or not. Some argue that it isn't "privatization" because

12508-487: The risk was costed, they all tipped the other way; in several cases by less than 0.1%. Following an incident in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where surgeons were forced to continue a heart operation in the dark following a power cut caused by PFI operating company Consort, Dave Watson from Unison criticized the way the PFI contract operates: It's a costly and inefficient way of delivering services. It's meant to mean

12626-441: The service is intended to be borne exclusively by the end-user, or through a lease billed to the government every year during the operation phase of the project, the PPP is, from the public sector's perspective, an " off-balance sheet " method of financing the delivery of new or refurbished public-sector assets. This justification was particularly important during the 1990s, but has been exposed as an accounting trick designed to make

12744-414: The services is borne wholly or in part by the government. Typically, a private-sector consortium forms a special company called a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) to develop, build, maintain, and operate the asset for the contracted period. In cases where the government has invested in the project, it is typically (but not always) allotted an equity share in the SPV. The consortium is usually made up of

12862-471: The solidarity group encompasses everyone under the local government's jurisdiction, and (ii) local officials are embedded in the group as members. The social standing and recognition of these groups encourages local officials to perform well, as they value high moral standing in the group. At the local level, various accountability measures exist that impact the job performance of elected officials. In Uganda, civil society organizations (CSOs) that divulge to

12980-547: The standard model of public procurement based on competitively tendered construction of publicly owned assets. In 2009, the New Zealand Treasury , in response to inquiries by the new National Party government, released a report on PPP schemes that concluded that "there is little reliable empirical evidence about the costs and benefits of PPPs" and that there "are other ways of obtaining private sector finance", as well as that "the advantages of PPPs must be weighed against

13098-660: The teaching of morals when they become communities of people who fully respect each other's right to make choices, and that the only way the schools can become meaningful purveyors of ethical values is if they provide students and adults with real-life experiences that are bearers of moral import. Students are given complete responsibility for their own education and the school is run by a direct democracy in which students and staff are equals. Econometric research has found that countries with greater press freedom tend to have less corruption. Greater political accountability and lower corruption were more likely where newspaper consumption

13216-444: The use of unique user identification and authentication supports accountability, and the use of shared user IDs and passwords degrades accountability. Because many individuals in large organizations contribute in many ways to decisions and policies, it is difficult even in principle to identify who should be accountable for the results. This is what is known, following Dennis F. Thompson , as "the problem of many hands". It creates

13334-412: Was appointed managing director of Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Company. It supported Bangladesh Railway in creating the draft Bangladesh Railway Amendment Act. This article about a Bangladeshi organisation is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Public-private partnership A public–private partnership ( PPP , 3P , or P3 ) is a long-term arrangement between

13452-427: Was associated with the neoliberal turn. Instigators of the policy portrayed PPPs as a solution to concerns about the growing level of public debt during the 1970s and 1980s. They sought to encourage private investment in infrastructure , initially on the basis of ideology and accounting fallacies arising from the fact that public accounts did not distinguish between recurrent and capital expenditures. In 1992,

13570-439: Was down to 45.4%. Performance monitoring is a general concern from these surveys and in the scholarly criticisms of these arrangements." After a wave of privatization of many water services in the 1990s, mostly in developing countries, experiences show that global water corporations have not brought the promised improvements in public water utilities. Instead of lower prices, large volumes of investment, and improvements in

13688-509: Was higher, according to data from roughly 100 countries and from different states in the US. Congressmen who receive less press coverage are less likely to produce a positive impact for their constituencies, are less likely to stand witness before congressional hearings, and federal spending for their district is lower. One explanation for the positive impact of media on accountability stems from Besley and Burgess' work. They argue that media resolves

13806-454: Was no more efficient than other forms of borrowing and it was "illusory" that it shielded the taxpayer from risk'. One of the main rationales for P3s is that they provide for a transfer of risk : the Private partner assumes the risks in case of cost overruns or project failures. Methods for assessing value-for-money rely heavily on risk transfers to show the superiority of P3s. However, P3s do not inherently reduce risk, they simply reassign who

13924-531: Was to promote and implement PFI. PUK was central in making PPPs the "new normal" for public infrastructure procurements in the country. Multiple countries subsequently created similar PPP units based on PUK's model. While initiated in first world countries , PPPs immediately received significant attention in developing countries . This is because the PPP model promised to bring new sources of funding for infrastructure projects in transition economies , which could translate into jobs and economic growth . However,

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