- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2021
Guidance on the introduction of Public-Private Partnerships in Romania
The purpose of this project is to provide technical support to Romania for enhancing public sector capacity in the preparation and procurement of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). The project is supporting Romania in amending its regulatory framework, providing with methodologies, guidance and training materials on PPPs.
Context
Romania is considering PPPs as a mean to deliver public infrastructures and services and to contribute to its ambitions for EUR 100 billion investment by 2030 in the infrastructure, agriculture, health and education sectors. The Ministry of Finance is developing a draft National Strategy for implementing priority infrastructure projects as PPPs. However, Romania has experienced a number of failed attempts to procure major infrastructure PPPs over the last decade, due to a lack of skills and expertise in preparing PPP projects and managing the PPP process.
The PPPs current legal framework does not yet have methodologies, guidelines and tools to help the public sector understand and reflect key principles of PPP (value for money, affordability assessment, long-term budgeting for PPPs) in practice. The Public Investment Management Unit (PIMU – the direct beneficiary authority) within the Ministry of Finance is responsible for providing methodological guidance for contracting authorities on PPPs.
The objective of the project is to support the development of PPP contract guidance and standard provisions as well as guidance and tools on the PPP preparation and procurement process, Value for Money and affordability assessment, risk assessment and allocation, and the impact on government deficit and debt under Eurostat rules. International best practices need to be adapted for the Romanian context and a program of training for public authorities and agencies are planned.
Support delivered
The project is unfolding as follow:
Firstly, the support provided focused on the review of the current Romanian PPP law and policy documentation and on the evaluation of the relevance and applicability of international good practices in the Romanian context.
Secondly, technical assistance provides PPP Contract guidance and Standard provisions, methodologies for (i) Value for Money assessment, (ii) risk assessment and allocation, (iii) PPP affordability assessment and (iv) PPP impact on government debt and deficit, and guidance on the PPP preparation and procurement process.
Thirdly, training workshops are organised for public sector PPP stakeholders and training materials on PPP guidance and tools are prepared.
Results achieved
The project is fully finalised, with all deliverables produced and approved, including:
- A report on international best practices and their relevance to the Romanian context,
- PPP Contract Guidance and Standard Provisions drafted and presented to stakeholders during a workshop of October 2023,
- Methodology for Value for Money Assessment was the object of training during Q2 2023,
- Methodologies for Risk assessment and allocation, PPP affordability assessment, PPP impact on government debt and deficit and Guidance on the PPP preparation and procurement process were the object of a workshop in October 2023,
- All Methodologies and guidelines were published by the Beneficiary Authority on its website, both in English and in Romanian.
Following the closing of the project, the Beneficiary authority is (i) working on the integration of the methodologies in the tertiary legislation of Romania, and (ii) participating in many conferences/events where these guidelines and methodologies are presented.
Useful links
Website page: RomaniaPPP_D8_PPPPreparationandProcurementGuide_final_EN_rev.pdf