Risk Management in Transport PPP Projects
In the Islamic Countries
175
Absence of a
PPP national and sector policy
, unclear procedures of
identification and
selection of the projects
to be developed under the PPP model and presence of barriers
to
foreign investments
;
Lack of a
PPP centralized dedicated unit
and lack of units/departments within the main
involved institutions, e.g. the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and its
controlled/delegated institutions acting as procuring authorities;
Absence of a
PPP dedicated regulatory framework
, Public-Private Initiatives being
implemented according to the public procurement code with special conditions included
in specific contracts on a case by case basis;
Lack of procedures specifically dedicated to PPP contracts, also resulting in the need to
improve
institutional and human resource capacity
in the appropriate monitoring and
management of the risks associated with PPP projects.
Despite the lack of a dedicated regulatory and institutional framework Algeria has implemented
a number of PPP initiatives most of them in the water desalination and distribution sector, some
energy power projects and transport initiatives. Most experiences relate to the development and
implementation of institutional PPPs, including all the public-private partnerships in the
transport sector. Based on existing literature the PPP initiatives implemented in the transport
sector are generally considered positive. The adoption of the institutional PPP model appears to
have generated the expected benefits in terms of improvement of the efficiency and efficacy of
the managed infrastructure and services as well as in the transfer of know-how and
competences from the international private partner to the local company. Algeria has
historically an overall valuable capacity and experience in the preparation and implementation
of infrastructure projects and in political terms the country seems to have limited the recourse
to the PPP model for political and opportunity reasons so far. On the basis of the challenges
imposed by the globalisation of the economy and technology sector on national economies,
together with the negative effects of the fluctuation in oil prices on the country economy, which
is significantly dependent on the oil market, the Algerian Authorities seem to have recently
started introducing changes in the policy and legislative frameworks, that may gradually result
in the setup of PPP dedicated policy, institutional and regulatory framework. The
recommendations in the following section may be considered to this purpose.
Policy recommendations
On the basis of the above-identified issues the following set of policy recommendations is
proposed:
Political measures
: A PPP policy is not existing at present, which represents a
precondition for appropriate institutional reforms and adoption of a PPP dedicated
regulatory framework. Algeria appears to have a positive experience with institutional
PPPs, however PPP projects should result from the elaboration of national integrated
development plans or transport master plans in order to make sure these are integrated