Following the establishment of a public private partnership (PPP) unit in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) the ministry is collaborating with South Africa, Malaysia and Australia and has trained some 43 officers from “almost all ministries.”
With regard to the latter, the source of the information, Keeneetse Lepekoane, who is the Acting Secretary for Development Programmes in MFDP, singled out the ministries of local government, environment, wildlife and tourism as well as works and transport as having been beneficiaries of such training.
All this information came out at the National Stakeholders Conference for Mid-Term Review of National Development Plan 10/District Development Plan 7/Urban Development Plan 3 held early last week at the Gaborone International Convention Centre. Sengwato Kesiame, an economic planner from the Central District Council, had wanted to know whether any legal framework was in place for PPP contracts.
“These contracts are very complex and will require such framework in order to protect the interests of all parties,” he said.
Elaborating on what Lepekoane had said, Dr. Taufila Nyamadzabo, Secretary for Economic and Financial Policy at MFDP, said that the completeness of the PPP process was such that even the legal aspect will be taken care of. His experience of the SADC headquarters project which was built under such arrangement, is that the PPP process tends to be long out of real need to cover all angles. The construction of the combined offices of the Ombudsman and the Land Tribunal were also constructed under similar arrangement. Elsewhere one of the most famous PPP examples often given is that of the London Underground which opened in 1863.
Speaking at the National Business Conference of the Botswana Confederation of Commerce, Industry and Manpower last month, President Ian Khama said that PPP processes would be incorporated into the mid-term review of NDP 10.
Early last year, Botswana participated in a SADC PPP Forum and Network Launch that was held in South Africa. Speaking at the meeting, Tiny Diswai-Moremi, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatisation Agency (PEEPA) said that there was need to synergise legislation as well as to rise to the challenge of harmonising regional PPPs within the context of different legislative frameworks. Other challenges that she cited were the absence of detailed risk mitigation measures, contract management capacities given the complex nature of PPP contracts, the duration of structuring and preparing for a PPP as well as bringing the poor into the developmental sphere.
A South African delegate suggested that pension funds presented an ideal source of funding given their interest in long-term assets and that if only 1 percent of pension fund money was directed into Africa, it would amount to US$50bn being available for investment. He also cited the PPP experience of a South African company called African Infrastructure Investment Managers which is the largest investor in Africa’s toll road programme. On the other hand, a Nigerian delegate warned that “political interference in PPPs is a widespread problem in Africa.”
Three officers have been seconded to the PPP Unit. The head of the Unit is graded at permanent-secretary-level.
