Gov’t Owns State Assets Under Public-Private Partnerships

Executive Director of the Public Investment Management Secretariat (PIMSEC), Douglas Levermore, says that the Government retains ownership of the country’s assets under public-private Ppartnership (PPP) arrangements.

“In the PPP modality, the Government still owns the assets, so this notion of a sell-out of the particular government interest is not founded in reality…the State’s assets may be concessioned to an experienced operator with resources for a period, but the State still owns the assets,” Mr. Levermore explained during a recent JIS News interview.

“With a PPP transaction, there is a mutually beneficial outcome, where the Government has a particular activity to be executed and the private sector is able to do it properly. The people of Jamaica derive great benefits from the proper functioning of such activities,” he added.

To date, the Government has completed 24 PPP transactions, including the Norman Manley International Airport and Kingston Terminal Properties Limited.

Mr. Levermore assured that extensive planning and analysis are done before the Government embarks upon these arrangements.

“I want for us to understand that there is widespread consultation before investment takes place. A successful public-private partnership project leads to an overall improvement of the economic fortune,” he noted.

Meanwhile, PIMSEC has announced that it will be upgrading its operations with the procurement of a new system to track the various stages of public investment projects.

“We are at an advanced stage of procurement for a platform called the Public Investment Information Management System and this platform will be available to all ministries, departments and agencies, public bodies and international development partners,” Mr. Levermore said.

He pointed out that the new system will greatly aid in the monitoring and evaluation of key investment projects being undertaken by Government.

PIMSEC is the gatekeeper for the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP), which is a rolling five-year plan of Cabinet-approved public investment projects.