Delivering local infrastructure through PPPs: evidence from the school sector

This paper discusses the use of public–private partnership (PPP) contracts in the school sector. With this purpose, four Portuguese case studies are carefully examined. The authors argue that the lessons provided by the literature are not being implemented by public authorities. In fact, while crafting these new governance structures, local governments seem to fail in protecting the public interest. To cope with this state of affairs, the authors draw a risk management strategy and advocate several contract management guidelines. The authors’ findings suggest that increasing transparency in procurement procedures and fostering the standardization of the tender documents and contractual clauses are absolute requirements in achieving value for money. Albeit these best practices are now beginning to be prevalent among academics and practitioners, local decision makers still strive to cope with the complex process of handling the whole life-cycle management of PPP arrangements.