PPP-Handing over Public Services to the Banks!

PPP-Handing over Public Services to the Banks!

Entareyehirungu

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Great Thinkers,

Jana nilianzisha uzi kuhusiana na PPP na kutoa maoni yangu ambayo bado yanapatikana kwenye uzi huu CEOs Host Kinana for PPP Presentation Today. Pamoja na ukweli kwamba Mada hii imekosa mwitikio kwenye Jukwaa la siasa lakini bado ni imani yangu kuwa ni muhimu sana kwa Taifa. Leo hii Sekta ya Umma Uingereza tayari imenasa kwenye dimbwi la lundo la madeni yenye riba mara mbili ya utaratibu wa kawaida wa Serikali kukopa.

Hii hapa chini ni Report mpya kutoka Kamati ya Fedha (House of Commons) ikielezea zigo wanalotwishwa wananchi kupitia mfumo huu. Note; karibu mara zote neno PFI linatumika na Waingereza kumaanisha PPP.

By Kerry-anne Mendoza |


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The Private Finance Initiative is hitting taxpayers Images_of_Money, under a CC License

There is a scandal unfolding quietly in Britain which poses an existential threat to our most critical public services. It is called the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). This dangerous circle of self-interest means our government is making the taxpayer pay the bill for private service providers and banks to take over our schools, hospitals and other core public services.

PFI schemes were initially designed by Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont in 1992 and were rapidly expanded under New Labour. They are touted as a form of Public Private Partnership. The government uses private finance, rather than borrowing in the usual way, to raise funds for projects. Since 1992, our hospitals and schools have been built this way. PFI loans are at least twice the rate of interest of ordinary government loans, and repaid over 25-30 years.

A recent report by the Treasury Committee condemned PFI as ‘always… more expensive than government borrowing'. The report continues: ‘we have not seen clear areas of savings and benefits in other areas… quality was lower in PFI buildings (and)… PFI is also inherently inflexible, especially for NHS projects'.

The majority of PFI debt does not appear in government debt or deficit figures – the government can therefore use it to bury the true debt burden. Departments can use it to increase their own budgets without dipping into their allotted funds for capital investment.
PFI also allows the private sector to develop the infrastructure to deliver national services while shifting the costs and the risk to the taxpayer. It is the loan provider of the PFI scheme (the bank) which retains ownership of the asset (the school or hospital) for at least the term of the loan, or in the case of default.

Banks are seeking to make profits on the financialization of our public services, and successive governments seeking to put a gloss on their spending figures. The simple interests of the taxpayer – to get what they pay for – have been quietly abandoned amid this circle jerk of the state, private service providers and the financial services sector. The only people who are not benefiting from PFI are the people actually paying for it.

Already, 22 of the 103 NHS trusts to enter PFI are facing financial difficulty due to the exorbitant repayments. Some hospitals are having to handover a fifth of their annual budget on paying for the deal.

In education, it was revealed that we are due to have a shortfall of 250,000 school places for our children by 2014, whilst the tax payer has picked up a £70 million ($106.6 million) bill for PFI schools which had to close.
A recent report by the European Union Services Strategy Unit, showed that the average profit for banks in PFI projects is over 50 per cent.

Some might well ask – so what? If the services are still free at the point of use, what do we care who provides them?
Our taxes pay for the services. PFI, by the Treasury Committee's own report is proven not to provide value for money for the tax payer.

As the recent health care disaster in Mid Staffordshire, and the unfolding NHS 111 scandal have taught us – prioritising the financialization of a service over its core purpose (helping people) costs lives.

Despite being an entirely manufactured cost inefficiency for the benefit of private companies, the PFI scandal is being used by those vested interests as a case for more privatisation. It is turned into proof that publicly run services are inherently inefficient, bureaucratic and costly. British Prime Minister David Cameron recently told the 300 delegates at the Global Investment Conference 2013 that he believed it was time stop ‘endlessly bashing bankers' because the City was one of Britain's greatest strengths.

According to the National Audit Office, The UK National Debt rose by £1.5 trillion as a result of the bank bailout. This is twice the nation's total annual budget. For this amount, Britain could have funded the health service for 14 years, the entire education system for 40 years or over 300 of Job Seeker's Allowance. ‘Banker bashing' by the public will not, and cannot, end until this sector and its cronies in parliament are held to account properly. The British public needs to face up to a terrifying but empowering reality. We have no advocates. This is not a Conservative, a Liberal Democrat or a Labour issue. This is a democratic issue. All three major parties have participated in these scams; they are all in it together.

We need to really get it in our bones that the cavalry is not coming. We are it. Only our newly emerging people's campaigns and institutions can resolve the crisis, because our existing institutions not only created it, but exist to serve it. For a longer version of this post, along with ideas for taking action see the Scriptonite blog. Crossposted with the author's permission.
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Chanzo Kirefu: http://scriptonitedaily.wordpress.c...ership-of-our-schools-and-hospitals-to-banks/
 
Hao CEO's wanamuita Kinana kuzungumzia hii issue wakiwa na expectations gani?
 
Andrew Nyerere mada hii inakuhusu sana. Inaanzia katika mazingira sawa na yale ya "the Federal Reserve Bank" Karibu tupembue na kujadili kwa mustakabali wa wajukuu wetu. Nimefurahi kumsoma Ms Judith na ninamuhitaji sana hapa.
 
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There have been warnings several times that the Tanzania PPP framework is very vague and the set-up of PPP implementing institutions is in the manner of placing a cart before the horse! The PPP Act 2010 and the PPP Regulation 2011 have many loop holes which expose the Government to potential disputes and subsequent contingent liabilities. What India is currently passing through was once been experienced in Chile. While Chile's experience is at the moment seen as a success, the Chilean PPP programme faced excessive contract renegotiation and high-level corruption – that significantly increased the cost borne by the state. In the early days of Chile's PPP program, unclear institutional arrangements forced the government to renegotiate several contracts – and these proved to be quite costly.

Chile's total cumulative investment in 50 concessions awarded so far (since 1991) is approximately US$11.3 billion, or 5% of Chile's current GDP. But 26% of investments value are the excessive costs of contract renegotiation and settlement of disputes. The total PPP investments in Chile is many times less than the sum of money under contingent liabilities in different PPP projects in India. More than Rs.1.35 trillion (equivalent to US$ 20bil) are on hold from different Projects.

From Chile and Now India, Tanzania should learn that institutional safeguards are critical and should immediately establish specific sectoral legislation on PPPs and put clear institutional arrangements.

Enjoy the Article below! Source: Plan panel, infra ministries to meet to revive interest in PPPs

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New Delhi:
The Planning Commission will meet infrastructure ministries on Friday to consider measures to address the waning confidence in public contracts run in partnership with private entities and improve the mechanism.

The panel will also move a cabinet note within a fortnight on a draft law for resolving disputes in government projects.
It will meet the secretaries of all infrastructure ministries such as road transport and highways, shipping, railways, power, urban development and aviation to discuss ways to restore confidence in public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
Roads secretary Vijay Chhibber confirmed a meeting has been scheduled for this.

Plan panel deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said last week the commission had prepared a note on ways to improve the PPP model. Ahluwalia is expected to chair Friday's meeting.

The commission has identified seven areas where ministries have to improve to work through PPP projects, a government official aware of the developments said, declining to be identified.

For example, infrastructure ministries have been advised to set up monitoring mechanisms within dedicated PPP cells but half of them have not done this, the official said.

Other officials said now that suggestions on the commission's draft dispute resolution Bill from secretaries, arbitral bodies, lawyers and experts have been received, the commission will seek to float a cabinet note.

"We have supported the Bill and will be happy if the mechanism helps speed up dispute resolution," said Chhibber.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had asked the commission on 16 May to draft a dispute resolution Bill for large public contracts.
Money stuck in disputed claims in public projects increased to [FONT=Utopia Std_Rupee]Rs.[/FONT]1.35 trillion in 2009-10 from about [FONT=Utopia Std_Rupee]Rs.[/FONT]54,000 crore in 2001-02, according to the latest data available with the Construction Industry Development Council, an industry lobby set up by the Plan panel.

Officials said the commission's draft proposes to set up a judicial tribunal dedicated to deciding disputes in public contracts. It will be required to process the cases within six months and appeals to its decisions can only be made at the Supreme Court, making the judicial process shorter, the first official quoted earlier said.

"PPP has become a controversial word in the last year, though state governments across the country have brought in more private players across sectors," said Parvesh Minocha, group managing director at infrastructure services firm Feedback Infra.

The Reliance Infrastructure Ltd-led special purpose vehicle Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt. Ltd stopped operating the Delhi Airport Express Metro Line on 1 July, accusing the Delhi Metro Rail Corp. of "persistently failing" to rectify the substantial defects in the civil structure designed and built by DMRC. And in January, GMR Infrastructure Ltd and GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd said they wanted to exit the highways projects they had earlier vied for with stiffly competitive bids citing government's inability to get the required clearances in time that made the projects unviable.

The roads ministry could award only 1,321km of road projects against the targeted 9,500km through private partnership models last year, complaining that only a few private groups were bidding for the projects amid the economic slowdown.
While experts blame the PPP concept itself, the Plan panel has asserted that the problem with the model lies in project management and discipline within the ministerial divisions who become project authorities
 
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