Sheppard, Gail and Beck, Matthias (2023) Transparency trade-offs in the operation of national Public Private Partnership units: The case of Ireland’s National Development Finance Agency. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 42 (107111). pp. 1-17. ISSN 0278-4254

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Abstract

Since 2002, the Irish National Development Finance Agency [NDFA] has played a leading role in the procurement of Public Private Partnership [PPP] projects in Ireland (UNECE, 2008). It has procured 9 PPP projects bundles, which are currently listed on its website, between 2002 and 2022 1 in addition to Primary Care, Justice, OPW and Education bundles not currently listed on its website. Ireland follows a global pattern where national or provincial PPP units, frequently organised as arm’s-length bodies, play a central role in managing the partnership-based procurement of infrastructure projects (Burger, 2009). This paper examines how the NDFA, acting as Ireland’s PPP unit, has affected the transparency and accountability of Irish PPP procurement. Our analysis indicates that the expanding role played by the NDFA has been depoliticisation and agencification. Our analysis deviates from some previous critical studies of PPP agency governance (Sześciło, 2020) in that we argue that agencification can adversely affect some aspects of PPP transparency while strengthening others, such as selection process transparency. Nonetheless, we suggest the approach to PPP procurement could harm the long-term sustainability of Irish PPP. Using the example of Ireland, our paper contributes to an understanding of the impact of such institutional arrangements on transparency and accountability of PPP procurement.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	PPP; Depoliticisation; Debureaucratisation; Rebureaucratisation; Agencification; Transparency; Accountability;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Business
Item ID:	18812
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107111
Depositing User:	Gail Sheppard
Date Deposited:	27 Aug 2024 15:05
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Accounting and Public Policy
Publisher:	Elsevier
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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