As established by an Act of Parliament in October 2011, the Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the aim of meeting threshold criteria, affordability, value for money and appropriate risk transfer, the Makeni City Council (MCC) have assured its partners of their open door policy.
When papers and resources will have been assembled together, MCC will be transformed into a modern city with lots of sectors to be operated and controlled by the private sector – from waste collection and management to water trading space, sports facilities and the transport sector among others. The private sector in that part of the country are ready and willing to invest in an environment where there are quality services, standard options in terms of design, construction, and reduced risks in the area of efficiency innovation, service quality, sustainability and others.
It could be recalled that in 2011 the President through the office of the Chief of Staff prepared and submitted to Parliament for the establishment of the PPP. Since then it was confirmed that direct money from central or local government will not in any way be enough to sustain projects so an alternative route of sourcing money was then suggested.
As part of their wiliness and quest to actualize the PPP concept, the Chief Administrator (CA) for MCC, William Alpha, said the present market dues collection process is not a fair method of collecting dues after considering small and big shops are paying equal dues. He said as a Council they have been anticipating on how they will open up with more businesses for the private sector to that more revenue will be collected from dues.
Alpha said locals and the private sector have the key responsibility to give integrity to local councils because according to him when that integrity is lost between the two the tendency of awarding contracts to the private sector will not be easy. He advised the private partners to reciprocate their benefits in their community in complimenting government’s efforts.
The CA said outsourcing revenue collection is a form of public private service which is managed by Councils pointing out that if proper PPP model is followed in a standard format, Councils will monitor all revenue points. He said if revenue collection is in any way been politically interfered into, it undermines the local authority. He described the PPP as one of the best transparent and accountable models of revenue collection in the country as long a it is properly implemented.
By Mohamed Kabba
Twitter @chikakabba
Friday January 27, 2017
ADVERTISEMENT