A Study into the Effectiveness of Private Finance Initiative (2010)
Effectiveness of Private Finance Initiative Dissertation – The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is a policy created around two decades ago and developed meticulously, ever since. It was originally introduced as there was a general consensus that tax payer’s money was not efficiently used when government was procuring buildings to provide public services. Thus, PFI was conceived to enhance public service delivery through private finance and as an enhancement, providing greater VFM through the transfer of risk to the private sector.
This dissertation projects looks at each PFI apparent benefit and analyses whether they provide what the UK Government promised they would. PFI plays a considerable role in the provision of public service delivery. PFI has been a very controversial policy and has been audited and reviewed many times. The Treasury has been under immense pressure to develop PFI so the policy can provide VFM.
A review of the relevant literature is undertaken, with reference to PFI projects specifically. PFI does not appear to deliver any of these benefits at present. This can contributed towards the European Procurement directive which brought about barriers to the bidding stage and thus made the PFI market uncompetitive.
A significant change to PFI came within the election of Labour in 1997 who re-badged the scheme as Public Private Partnerships. Government reforms were introduced into procurement to meet the efficiency, value and modernisation agenda, led by Sir Peter Gershon, identified weaknesses in procurement and led to the standardisation of PFI contracts. This new standardised contract had the aim to enable public sector procures to meet their requirements and deliver best value for money. Subsequent revisions to the SoPC in 2002 and 2004 have not altered the original requirement to achieve and deliver value for money.
- 10,000 words – 38 pages in length
- Excellent use of literature
- Good in depth analysis
- Well written throughout
- Interesting subject topic
- Ideal for finance students
1. Abstract
2. Introduction
Acronyms
The introduction of PPP to government public service delivery and its affect on the provision of services
Use of Private Finance in Public Services – Pre 1992
The Development of PFI – Post 1992
3. Literature Review
What is PFI
PFI Procurement Process v Traditional Procurement Process
Main Issues
Value for Money
Risk Transfer
Cost of Borrowing
Bidding
Over Budget/Over Time
4. Research Methodology
Government Reports
Books
Professional Publications
Journal articles
5. Discussion of Findings
Design Quality
Risk Transfer
Innovation /efficiency/ on time/on budget
6. Conclusions
7. Recommendations
8. Personal Reflection
Limitations of the study
Recommendations for further study
References
Bibliography
Appendix
