Public Private Partnerships

Public Private Partnerships – Government To Relook At Standardisation

In 2000, the PPP Unit of National Treasury published the first draft of the standardised terms for public private partnership (PPP) agreements ("Standardisation"). At the time that the Standardisation was first published for comment a number of concerns were raised by various entities involved in PPPs, including law firms, banks, construction entities and service providers. Many of these issues remained unresolved by March 2001, when the practice manual in relation to PPPs together with the official Standardisation was issued by the PPP Unit.

Since then the projects that have come to the market or closed have continued in the main to be plagued by these issues. In many instances these items have caused projects to be called unbankable by lenders and unpalatable by equity holders, as the risks being placed at the doors of lenders and equity holders cannot be managed effectively by them. Often, however, the