HANDLING FINANCIAL IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS (PPPS) IN ZAMBIA

Abstract

Governments in developing countries face considerable challenges in singlehandedly delivering development to their people. Modality of involving the private sector in closing the development gap has been a significant vision for governing authorities. In a bid to reverse Zambia’s stifled growth, the country enacted the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Act No. 14 of 2009. An array of critical success factors (CSFs) underlies decisions by countries for adopting the PPP model of development. The establishment of PPPs as the ‘new normal’ for development has revealed insufficient knowledge among building industry technocrats regarding the operability of such schemes. Further, implementation challenges have mainly affected financial, technical entities of valuation decisions over the main stages of the project, namely the proposal submission, negotiation, construction, and operation phases. This paper aims to highlight two knowledge gaps relating to the governance of PPPs. Firstly, there is a need to know the extent of built environment professionals’ knowledge of the ‘PPP new normal’ for development. And secondly, there is a need to verify the scope of its transforming effects on Zambia’s growth trajectory because of CSFs used for its introduction. To ascertain these objectives, a mixed research approach was used consisting of interviews, the administration of a questionnaire, and two case studies. Findings from this research revealed that this mode of development remains misunderstood by professionals owing to PPP complexities. Principal Component Analysis in SPSS showed that PPPs have had little transformative effect regarding CSFs used to establish them. Transformative prospects lie in industry professionals’ acquaintance with potential risk factors affecting prudent fiscal management of projects.