Public investment and public-private partnerships : addressing infrastructure challenges and managing fiscal risks / edited by Gerd Schwartz, Ana Corbacho, Katja Funke.

Collection of papers that arose from a seminar held in Budapest Hungary in 2007 one of the organisers of which was the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Governments faced with the need to upgrade public infrastructure and improve public service delivery are considering the use of public private partnerships as a way to achieve the required levels of investment at times of budget constraints. 'However PPPs generate significant fiscal, macroeconomic, and reputational risks for government including by creating large contingent liabilities... (editors introduction)'. This book considers how governments should deal with infrastructure challenges; the fiscal risks of PPPs; specific aspects of the institutional environment to handle PPPs; and finally considers some of the elements necessary to successful PPPs: accounting, reporting and auditing. Chpater 11 covers PFI projects in the UK where some £26billion is committed, one of the largest such programs in the world.