A structure for government requirements in public-private partnerships

A spectrum of requirements for the procurement of public infrastructure under various public-private partnership arrangements has been communicated by governments to the private sector participants. This paper suggests a structure for these requirements and demonstrates how they have been realized in public-private partnership projects. Government requirements are categorized and described under a structure of three dimensions: rights, obligations, and liabilities. Each dimension is further defined and explained through a number of attributes. The structure provides insights as to the basis for the different modes under public-private partnerships such as build-operate-transfer, build-own-operate-transfer, and build-transfer-operate. The structure is used to examine government requirements in a number of public-private partnership transportation projects. The results show that, for each dimension and its related attributes, comprehensive and clear articulation of government requirements is generally needed. This will reduce the amount of supplemental materials issued for the request for proposals, help consortiums in responding with proposals that can fit the requirements and reduce the amount of time spent in negotiations and (or) the need for contract amendments to reflect marketplace realities missed earlier.