Performance of PPPs and Traditional Procurement in Australia

This study, carried out by Allen Consulting Group for Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, has looked into the key question of the relative efficacy of PPPs and traditionally procured projects in relation to time and cost overruns. The outcomes are based on data from 206 government procurement projects, of which 21 PPP and 31 traditional projects. The major part of the projects considered concerned transport infrastructure projects. The main conclusions are that PPPs show superior cost efficiency, that traditional projects are likely to be completed later than PPPs relative to the budget and with traditional projects the project size had a negative impact on time over-runs compared to PPP. Furthermore, performance and transparency are higher with PPPs. Although rather general of character, the report gives empirical grounds to many of the answers to the most common objections against PPPs.