The setting up of a Public-Private Partnerships Unit within the Finance Ministry is a step in the right direction.

In a detailed account of how the system will be working he gave during a seminar held recently, Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech said the unit will centralise government expertise and assist other ministries on the subject. He added that the Contracts Department will have to issue a set of new regulations too.

Public-Private Partnerships are not a new idea in this country but following some sporadic experiments that were carried out in recent years, it is now the time to set up a framework that will help them develop and, at the same time, bring out the best from such ventures.

Past experiments included road landscaping in various areas around Malta, the Zejtun elderly people’s home, the official searches system at the Public Registry and the provision of street lighting for local councils.

Although the feedback on such initiatives was mostly positive, there were a number of shortcomings which did not allow the system to work to perfection, largely because there were no guidelines on which these could function. PPPs were also in their infancy and it was expected that these could not function in the best way possible.

Mr Fenech went one further than this, saying that there was more concentration on inputs rather than outputs. He gave an example of this, mentioning the fact that when it came to street lighting, the focus was on just changing the bulbs rather than seeing that the streets were properly lit.

The idea behind PPPs is to improve public service quality levels and, therefore, the quality of life for citizens. It has been repeated often that the public sector has a lot to learn in terms of quality and efficiency from the private sector; through such partnerships it is hoped that the service provided by government departments will improve.

Maybe, one day, we will have a public sector which is managed privately, something that will surely improve the way the public sector operates. We are still far away from reaching this point but PPPs could be the first small step towards this aim.

The proposed PPP framework will be tested this year in four projects that were announced in the budget. These are the Mellieha community home for the elderly, the north regional sport complex, the new schools project as well as a number of heritage sites.

Although, as said earlier, PPPs have worked quite well in past experiments, one now expects that the system should function better, both as a result of past experiences and due to the new impetus it will be given through the setting up of the PPP unit mentioned by Mr Fenech.

It is known that staff has already been recruited in this respect and that they have been sent to the United Kingdom for training. The experience gained in other countries which have been using PPPs for more years than we have should come in handy and it would be a good idea if the local unit keeps in contact with other countries to learn from their methods as well as their mistakes.

Besides the four projects mentioned, the unit will be sounding the market to seek other areas where the PPP system could work. Mr Fenech mentioned the health sector, saying that some private companies have already expressed an interest in setting up PPPs. No doubt, once the system gets going and gains more credibility, there will be other companies from other sectors which would be willing to team up with the public service.