Performance Measurement Approaches in Public - Private Partnership in Kenya

Abstract

Private Public Partnerships (PPP) are today considered an integral avenue for the pursuit of Kenya’s development agenda. They are seen as a vehicle through which the government encourages and involves the private sector through commercial investments in facilities and services; give better value for money and transfer significant risk and management to the private sector. The adoption of this mechanism has widely been herald, however there is need to ascertain and evaluate the performance of these projects in detail. The principal objective of this study is to determine if implemented Public Private Partnerships in Kenya measure performance. Specifically, the study sought to identify the approaches/criteria used and the factors that influence performance measures employed. The research adopted a descriptive survey with the target population comprising seven implemented and concluded PPP projects. The study was a census survey, a complete enumeration of the objects to be studied. The study collected primary data through the use of a questionnaire which contained both open ended and closed ended questions. The study established that indeed implemented PPPs measured their performance using various criteria which included appropriate risk allocation, compliance with technical specifications of time, quality and functionality, project social benefit, financial performance indicators and environmental factors. Further, the study identified multi stakeholder expectations, difficulty in defining performance output, inability to measure total cost-benefit of projects, political influence and communication challenges as the major factors that influenced performance measurement. The study recommends that further partnerships should be encouraged using PPP models and that performance measurement should be a key consideration. It further recommends the need to undertake a comparative study on the determinants of a partnership and its relationship with the performance of relevant groups as well as the impact of government legislation on PPP success.