Ernest Effah Ameyaw

Identifying public‐private partnership (PPP) risks in managing water supply projects in Ghana

Purpose – The public‐private partnership (PPP) procurement approach enables the development and management of public infrastructure and services through leveraging private capital, management expertise, and creative commercial skills. This approach, pursued by the Ghanaian Government in the development and management of water supply services, contains a plethora of risks resulting from the complexity and dynamic interactions between municipal and central governments (pursuing monetary and political goals), public movements, private water operators, and international donors pursuing their own objectives. The paper seeks to increase awareness of the risks that can erode or reduce potential benefits of PPPs in the water supply sector.Design/methodology/approach – A research approach integrating a literature survey and case study is adopted. A rigorous literature review of PPP risks is first undertaken. Based on six case studies carried out in the Ghanaian water supply sector, this paper identifies and catego...

Cross-Sectional Analysis of Critical Risk Factors for PPP Water Projects in China

AbstractDuring the past decades in China, the traditional state monopoly has experienced difficulties in meeting the huge demand for new infrastructure and improvement in service levels, engendering the growth of different forms and degrees of private sector involvement. Since the 1990s, China has started experimenting with the public-private partnership (PPP) delivery method in the water supply sector. However, many problems stemming from unsuccessful risk management have been encountered in PPP applications that have eventually led to project failure. This paper aims to identify and evaluate typical risks associated with PPP projects in the Chinese water supply sector. A literature review, a Delphi survey, and face-to-face interviews were used to achieve these objectives. Finally, a register of 16 critical risk factors (CRFs) of water PPP projects in China was established. The findings revealed that completion risk, inflation, and price change risk have a higher impact on Chinese water PPP projects, whe...

Risk ranking and analysis in PPP water supply infrastructure projects: An international survey of industry experts

Purpose – This paper aims to identify and evaluate the most significant risk factors that strongly affect the implementation of public–private partnership (PPP) water supply projects. PPP for water supply infrastructure services has seen continued growth over the past two decades, following public sector’s budgetary constraints and inability to provide infrastructure-based water services efficiently and cost effectively. However, these projects are often subjected to major risks leading to failures. Design/methodology/approach – Following extensive literature review and case study analyses, an international questionnaire survey was conducted with practicing and experienced PPP experts to establish the significant risks in PPP water projects. Both the probability of occurrence and severity of 40 risks were evaluated by the expert panel to determine their significance and impact on water projects procured under the PPP arrangement. Findings – The paper presents a derived risk factor list, ranks the factors ...

Barriers Affecting the Adoption of Green Building Technologies

AbstractGreen building (GB) is gaining increased acceptance in the construction industry as a viable solution for meeting the growing demand for environmentally friendly or healthy buildings. Howev...

A fuzzy model for evaluating risk impacts on variability between contract sum and final account in government-funded construction projects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and then evaluate perceived risk factors influencing variability between contract sum and final count, and to develop a fuzzy risk assessment model for evaluating the overall impact of established critical risk factors impacting on variability between contract sum and final account in government-funded construction projects. Construction projects are characterised by risk factors that significantly impact on variability between the contract sum and final account. Design/methodology/approach – A research approach integrating questionnaire survey, mean scoring ranking and principal component factor analysis (PCFA) methods was adopted to evaluate and classify the critical risk factors. A fuzzy synthetic evaluation method was sequentially applied to compute the overall risk impact (ORI) of eight critical risk factors’ impact on variability between contract sum and final account. Findings – Initial results showed that eight critical risk factors have high impa...

Critical success criteria for public-private partnership projects : international experts' opinion

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects success is the ultimate goal of practitioners and government organizations. In this regard, the last decade has seen considerable research into the critical success factors (CSFs) for PPP projects. However, a very important subject which has received very little attention in the normative literature is the success criteria for PPP projects. This paper examines the general perception of purposively sampled international PPP experts on a set of 15 PPP projects success criteria derived from literature. The survey results show that all the success criteria are critical; however seven are very critical. These include: effective risk management; meeting output specifications; reliable and quality service operations; adherence to time; satisfying the need for public facility/service; long-term relationship and partnership; and profitability. The findings of this study are impactful because they inform practitioners on the key measures to consider when evaluating the success of PPP projects. More research should be conducted to further develop a composite success index that could be used to objectively assess the success levels of different PPP projects. In addition, the perceptions of different stakeholders on PPP projects success criteria and the causal relationship between CSFs and success criteria for PPP projects should be investigated.

Critical success factors for public-private partnership in water supply projects

Purpose Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are viewed as a reform tool for resolving inefficiency and absence of dynamism in water supply delivery in developing countries. However, the requirements for their successful implementation have received very little attention. This paper aims to describe a set of critical success factors (CSFs) that, when given special and continual attention, would ensure a successful project implementation and to provide a predictive tool to aid implementers to evaluate the likelihood of a successful PPP water supply project. Design/methodology/approach Fourteen perceived CSFs were initially derived from project cases and extant literature, and verified through a two-round Delphi survey. Factor analysis established five critical success factor groups (CSFGs) that were then used to develop a fuzzy synthetic evaluation tool for assessing the chance of a successful project. Findings The five key CSFGs are commitment of partners, strength of consortium, asset quality and social support, political environment, and national PPP unit. The model output showed that, overall, these factors have a “very high” positive impact on a successful implementation of a water supply project. Hence, there is an excellent correlation between achievement of the CSFGs and project success. Success indices of individual principal factors are also “very high”. Originality/value The study presents a tool to public clients and private audience, and it is hoped that the study will trigger policy development towards PPP practice in developing countries, because these findings have wider implications for legal and regulatory systems, public capacity, financing, public procurement and politics.

Evaluating key risk factors for PPP water projects in Ghana: a Delphi study

Purpose – This paper aims to report on the partial findings of a research project on risk allocation in public–private partnership (PPP) water projects. It identifies risk factors encountered in PPP water infrastructure projects, evaluates their associated risk levels and presents an authoritative risk factor list to assist the sector institutions to understand the important risks associated with such projects in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach – A ranking-type Delphi survey was conducted to develop a rank-order list of critical risk factors. Findings – Twenty critical risk factors with high impact on water PPPs were established. The top-five risks relate to foreign exchange rate, corruption, water theft, non-payment of bills and political interference. Originality/value – Being the pioneering study, it holds implications for practitioners. By prioritising the risks according to their relative impacts on the success of water PPP projects, public and private participants will become more aware of and le...

A Fuzzy Approach for the Allocation of Risks in Public–Private Partnership Water-Infrastructure Projects in Developing Countries

AbstractThe allocation of risk between public-sector and private-sector parties in a public–private partnership (PPP) contract is a critical element of success that should be based on an assessment of the party best able to manage it. Assessing the risk-management capability of a contracting party to reach an efficient risk-allocation decision is subjective and implicit because it requires value judgments and experiential knowledge of expert practitioners. This paper draws on a set of established risk-allocation criteria (RAC) and the fuzzy-set approach to examine the allocation of five key risk factors related to PPPs in water supply infrastructure projects. The fuzzy set is used to deal with ambiguity in the linguistic RAC to minimize the fuzziness and bias in qualitative expert knowledge that characterize real-life decision-making. To explore how the risks should be allocated, three rounds of a Delphi questionnaire survey was conducted to elicit knowledge of practitioners with hands-on experience relat...

Corrupt Practices in the Construction Industry: Survey of Ghanaian Experience

Across the globe, corruption presents a major risk that reduces construction project performances by inflating costs and reducing the quality of the infrastructure commissioned. In developing countries, corruption stifles economic development and engenders social inequality. Using a structured questionnaire survey to elicit direct knowledge and lived experiences of construction practitioners, this study uncovered the prevalence and forms of corrupt practices within the developing country of Ghana. Research findings illustrate that habitual corruption and unethical behavior prevail among public officials, contractors, and construction professionals during the bid evaluation, tendering, and contract implementation stages of a construction contract. This research proffers that corruption is driven by a toxic concoction of high political connections, excessive and reckless sole sourcing of public construction projects, lack of commitment by construction companies in addressing corruption, and the inherently idiosyncratic operational environment of the construction sector. The top five forms of corruption frequently encountered, in descending order, are kickbacks (extortion), bribery, collusion and tender rigging, conflict of interest, and fraud. This research presents a rare glimpse of construction industry corruption in a developing country and provides polemic clarity geared to intellectually challenge readers in government and industry. Future work is required to explore and develop appropriate countermeasures to address corrupt practices and behaviors.