La colaboración público-privada para la provisión de autopistas, carreteras y puentes

Resumo

In response to the fiscal crisis, countries all over the world are resorting to private participation in infrastructure development. The Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) contracts are no longer tied to a political philosophy since they have become a necessary vehicle to finance public services. It is important to note that under no circumstances is the government allowed to abdicate its ministerial responsibilities. On the contrary, the government has to establish a solid and efficient governmental structure capable of supervising compliance with the terms agreed in the PPP. The governmental stability works as an incentive for private investment. Therefore, the government’s role should evolve from being the provider to being the regulator. A PPP is considered a long term agreement between the public and the private sector. Both parties complement each other in order to achieve their respective goals. The PPP is a contract in which the parties agree to renegotiate the terms of an agreement as a way of addressing conflicts that may arise during the life of the contract. In other words, given that the contact is expected to last for a long period of time, the parties agree to establish the rules that would apply in the event of a change in the circumstances originally present at the time the contract was signed. The general perception that through a PPP, the private sector has to assume the totality of the risk has been proven wrong. The risks of the project are to be shared among the parties taking into account their capability of control over said risk. This assessment requires a cost-effective analysis in order to determine the financial resources available to the parties and the economic feasibility of the project. In order to make this assessment, the United Kingdom’s mechanisms of the Public Sector Comparator and the value for money are used. The concept of Public-Private Partnerships has evolved differently in countries worldwide. In common law systems the concept is very ample and includes basically any type of agreement between the public and the private sector. On the contrary, in civil law systems such as Europe and in Latin America, the concept is more limited. The type of contract most commonly utilized for PPP is the concession. As such, in general terms we can say that the term concession and PPP are the same. However, in practice some countries consider them two different types of contracts. On October 30, 2007, Spain recognized for the first time the PPP contract as a formal contract. This law makes a distinction between a concession and a PPP. In Puerto Rico, the PPP contracts were officially recognized on June 8, 2009. This law adopted the common law version of the PPP since it includes basically any type of agreement between the public and the private sector. It also includes the principles of value for money and Public Sector Comparator. When using a PPP in the development or improvement of highways, roads, and tunnels; it is important to determine the economic viability of the project since not all the roads are adequate for this type of agreement. Second, it is necessary to conduct an independent study to estimate the traffic flow given that one of the primary reasons for the renegotiation of PPP contracts is the overestimation of traffic.