This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the Infrastructure Committee. The report of the Infrastructure Committee contains this committee's recommendations. Although the report is structured along similar lines as the Infrastructure Study Research Team's Report #4--Summary of Findings and Activities of Other States, this is the report that contains the Committee's recommended actions to the Governor and State Legislature.
Traditional infrastructure regulation–the law of regulated industries–rests atop three pillars: rate regulation, entry restriction, and universal service. This mode of regulation has typically been applied to providers of network-type resources: resources that are optimally supplied as integrated systems. The monetary system is such a resource; and money creation is the distinctive function of banks. Bank regulation can therefore be understood as a subfield of infrastructure regulation. With few exceptions, modern academic treatments of banking have emphasizes banks' intermediation function and downplayed or ignored their monetary function. Concomitantly, in recent decades U.S. bank regulation has strayed from its infrastructural roots. This regulatory drift has been unwise.
This paper proposes an institutional solution that can help unlock the flow of low yielding longterm savings towards high-return infrastructure investments. The solution is to transform public-private partnerships in infrastructure and the classic model of multilateral development banks. Instead of thinking of public-private partnerships as bilateral contracts between a private concession operator and a government agency, we argue that they should be conceived as partnerships that also involve a development bank and long-term institutional investors as partners. We propose a new model for development banks, which is to transform themselves into originate-and-distribute banks for PPP infrastructure projects. This way they can conserve their valuable capital and leverage their expertise and capabilities by making them available to longterm institutional investors.
Public Private Partnership (PPP) procurement has developed in many countries, as an effective way for governments to allay their financial burden and/or improve the efficiencies of public services. However, PPP has also experienced many ups and downs in its applications. As a collaborative venture between public and private sectors, the quality of the relationship between them has been shown to be a key contributor to the success of a PPP project. However, no study has, as yet, conceptualized and tested an integrative framework for modeling and addressing the relational aspect in PPP projects. This study aims to fill this gap. Moreover, the revamping of PPP in the above direction, would align with what is found to be a much larger trend, in moving from traditional management to relationship approaches in project management in general and on built infrastructure projects in particular. The general purpose of this study is to make an original contribution to relationship research in PPP, by addressing the importance of this intangible side of PPP, through developing a strategic relationship management framework for parties engaged in PPP projects. Having examined relational research in joint ventures, alliancing and inter-organisational collaboration, it is found that game theory, transaction cost analysis and relational contracting have a direct bearing on inter-organisational relationships in infrastructure projects. Consequently, they are adopted as the theoretical foundations for this research. This study first investigates the 'hard side' of PPP relationships, analyzing their variables based on semi-structured interviews with PPP experts. Further, the 'soft side' of PPP relationships, is found to be influenced mainly by inter-organisational trust and commitment. This is also investigated in this research by intensive literature review of inter-organisational relationships. A relational variables and indicators model for PPP projects is then developed. Quantitative research data was collected from two questionnaire surveys, targeting international experiences. The first survey was aimed to examine the intensifying and/or moderating effects of various relational variables. The second survey was designed to identify the Critical Success Factors of relationship management in PPP context. Qualitative research data was consolidated from a case study and follow-up structured interviews. Findings from surveys, case study and interviews were then triangulated to develop a strategic framework for better relationship management for infrastructure PPP projects. The findings from this research make a specific contribution to relationship management research; while the 'hard' and 'soft' sides provide lenses for both PPP parties to examine their relationship with their respective partners. The proposed strategic framework consists of a Relationship Management Scheme and Guidelines to be implemented in different PPP phases, through addressing the sustainability of the relationship. It provides an initial scheme or base approach for project parties to manage the relationships proactively rather than reactively. Besides, this research also helps to identify relevant relational components that can be incorporated or directly used in criteria for pre-tender selection. Such screening and special attention to these critical components can also help to develop more sustainable relationships and attain better value for money through PPP procurement in practice. ; published_or_final_version ; Civil Engineering ; Doctoral ; Doctor of Philosophy
"October 1994." ; Prepared for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Water Resources Support Center, Institute for Water Resources. ; At head of title: Federal Infrastructure Strategy Program. ; Final report. ; Mode of access: Internet.
Opinions from society have become increasingly important in the development of public infrastructure projects as governments and organizations place greater emphasis on public consultation and engagement efforts. With a developing trend around the world (including in Hong Kong) towards greater public involvement in the decision-making processes for public infrastructure projects, it is imperative that decision-makers give sufficient consideration into the needs and concerns from different sectors of society. Inability to do so can lead to project delays, protests and litigation. Existing public consultation and engagement exercises often attract those with the loudest voices or with special interests / motives (political, financial, etc.). Moreover, comments and feedback collected from public consultation and engagement events are often not systematically organized and codified for use as reference in future projects. This leads to the loss of potentially valuable lessons when preparing for new projects. Public engagement, addressing the needs of society and social capital are mostly looked at from the social sciences perspective. Research in these areas focusing on infrastructure development and construction remain limited. Furthermore, there is currently no comprehensive approach and strategy on addressing the needs of society to continuously capture the lessons learned from previous projects. Previous research work on stakeholder engagement in construction focused on analyzing and resolving conflicts between stakeholders; stakeholder identification and prioritization of engagement items based on ethical practices; and integration of project management and asset management teams for providing better feedback on end-user needs. However, these studies did not address some fundamental problems in stakeholder engagement such as the lack of participation from a larger, more representative audience; the need to proactively engage certain groups or sectors of society that are most severely impacted by a project; and identifying the connection between the public and other construction stakeholders to illustrate how the rest of society can contribute and relate to a public infrastructure project. This Study aims to: i) develop an Integrative Approach that can help decision-makers of public infrastructure projects better anticipate, consider and subsequently address the needs and concerns of society when planning and designing public infrastructure projects by empowering stakeholders with knowledge and lessons learned from previous experiences; ii) demonstrate how a broad range of project stakeholders, including the public and various groups in society, can be embraced and connected through mobilization and utilization of social capital; and iii) illustrate the facilitation of knowledge exchange between the various stakeholders of a public infrastructure project. Through a comprehensive research process involving a combination of literature review, interviews with relevant experts, observations at public engagement events in Hong Kong, organizing a public engagement event in collaboration with an NGO, conducting an empirical case study and hosing a workshop with construction industry experts, the Integrative Approach to Addressing Societal Needs was developed, which consist of a Stakeholder Knowledge Transfer (SKT) model, a Relational Knowledge Base (RKB), as well as a set of Strategies and Implementation Measures for putting the SKT model and RKB into practice. ; published_or_final_version ; Civil Engineering ; Doctoral ; Doctor of Philosophy
The Government of Zimbabwe is operating using the mantra: 'Zimbabwe is open for business'. The notion of opening for business requires robust supporting economic infrastructure for enhanced productivity, in the form of reliable supply of electricity, accessible road/railway transport networks and availability of contemporary Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure. The aim of the study was to develop a framework for making financing decisions for public infrastructure in Zimbabwe. The objectives of the study are to: determine the main sources of public infrastructure financing in Zimbabwe; establish innovative finance's capacity to close the public infrastructure financing gap in Zimbabwe; assess the role played by public-sector accounting in attracting appropriate and efficient mechanisms to finance public infrastructure in Zimbabwe; and ultimately to develop and recommend a framework for selecting suitable and efficient mechanisms to finance public infrastructure in Zimbabwe. According to literature reviewed, public infrastructure is broadly financed by public sector entities using their own resources (internally financed) or through private sector investments and innovative financing instruments (externally financed). When infrastructure is internally financed, the study is theoretically guided by the Public Goods Theory and the Theory of Public Finance and Public Policy. When externally financed, the Risk Return and Pecking Order theories are important. There are many instruments used to finance public infrastructure and one project may be financed using one or more instruments. Therefore, considerations are given to the need for a framework that helps improve the efficiency of the financing decision. The study was designed as a multiple case study that focused on four sectors of economic infrastructure, that is, transport, energy (electricity), ICT as well as water and sanitation. The research used synchronous mixed methods to achieve the objectives of the study. Qualitative research methods addressed the following objectives: a) to determine the main sources of public infrastructure financing in Zimbabwe; b) to establish innovative finance's capacity to close the public infrastructure financing gap in Zimbabwe; and c) to assess the role played by public-sector accounting in attracting appropriate and efficient mechanisms to finance public infrastructure in Zimbabwe. Whilst to develop and recommend a framework for selecting suitable and efficient mechanisms to finance public infrastructure in Zimbabwe the study combined qualitative and quantitative research methods. Qualitative data was collected through interviews conducted with officials and staff from government ministries, government departments, as well as parastatal enterprises dealing with the four infrastructure types. The same respondents were asked to complete a survey questionnaire used to address part of the objective that developed a framework for public infrastructure financing. Interview data were triangulated using secondary data extracted from reports and financial statements. Some of the secondary data was collected from the World Bank's development indicators online repository. Qualitative data analysis was done using RQDA, an open-source computer-aided data analysis software. Findings from the study revealed that the main sources of finance for public infrastructure in Zimbabwe are the government through budget appropriations, and concessionary loans from the China Export-Import Bank. There was also finance obtained from multilateral financial institutions such as the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the African Export-Import Bank. The study revealed that there is currently very limited use of innovative financing instruments such as PPPs in financing public infrastructure in Zimbabwe, despite the country having legislation to support such financing arrangements. The innovations in financing observed in the study entail the use of conventional financing mechanisms in unconventional ways. However, there is scope for improving the financing of public infrastructure using innovative financing mechanisms and significantly mitigate the financing gap. Public sector accountants in Zimbabwe are mainly active in financial reporting, although the financial statements for most ministries, government departments and parastatal enterprises had qualified audit opinions from the Auditor General's office. Public sector accountants are not active in financial management and cost and management accounting responsibilities. As a result, public sector accountants are not adding value to public money through offering advisory services in the efficient investment of public money, as well as financing public infrastructure assets using the most efficient financing mechanism. There is no uniformly applied framework when making financing decisions for public infrastructure in Zimbabwe. Therefore, a framework was developed and is recommended for use by this study. The developed framework entails eight steps that are interrelated and interconnected. Use of the proposed framework requires availability of data about infrastructure projects that have been done in the past. The study recommends that Zimbabwe should ensure a robust framework for protecting private sector investments, which can be achieved by ensuring policy consistency; creating and implementing a legal framework that protects private capital; and having economically viable infrastructure sectors, that are liberalised to allow private sector participation. The Government of Zimbabwe must take deliberate actions that ensure variety of financing options at the disposal of the public sector to lower costs of financing public infrastructure. It is also important to fully operationalise the legislation and policies designed to facilitate the participation of the private sector in financing public sector projects. Such operationalisation entails a decentralisation of the regulations and policies to the provincial and municipal levels. ; Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, Accounting, 2021
Briefing, where a construction client conveys his / her needs and aspirations to the design team, is described as the first and most important step in the process of delivering a building or other physical infrastructure. Due to the significant commitment of resources, it is recommended that clients carefully define and examine their needs in terms of project requirements, before and during briefing. Nevertheless, briefing is subject to many practical limitations. Many clients may overlook important aspects of briefing and various problems such as delays and cost overruns may ensue. Although the literature shows a substantial amount of studies that have addressed some briefing problems, briefing is still reported to pose continuing problems in the construction industry. Given the importance of improving the conceptualisation and implementation of briefing, a 'collaborative briefing approach' was developed in this study to improve the briefing process and its outputs, with particular reference to large-scale infrastructure projects, which involve multiple interfaces with many stakeholders. The above approach is designed to empower the traditionally mobilised briefing team to work collaboratively with a large group of multi-disciplinary stakeholders as an integrated briefing team in the form of a virtual organisation through a shared digital workspace created on a computer network. The workspace enables all members to work together remotely and asynchronously so as to achieve greater stakeholder participation in briefing. Since stakeholders contribute in bringing professional knowledge, experience and creativity to briefing, the enhanced stakeholder participation will increase their inputs and result in more fruitful briefing outputs. In this study, a comprehensive survey was first conducted to investigate and compare the strengths and weaknesses of common briefing practices in the Hong Kong construction industry, so as to establish a theoretical foundation for the research. An 'Integrated Collaborative Briefing Methodology' (INTERCOM) was developed to translate the described approach into a set of actionable methods and job plans for practical use. The INTERCOM comprises of five components: (i) a value based briefing methodology, (ii) a collaborative briefing job plan, (iii) an integrated briefing team, (iv) a collaborative briefing platform, and (v) facilitation service. The first four components were developed and validated by a group of well experienced multi-disciplinary industry practitioners. The fifth component merits a separate research and development exercise. The validation results reveal that the concept of collaborative briefing approach and the design of the INTERCOM methodology were well supported by the practitioners. In addition, it was concluded that the methodology would contribute to improve the briefing process by facilitating team management, enhancing requirement definition and promoting consensus building. It also improved requirement comprehensiveness, decision transparency, decision reliability, and decision satisfaction, as well as the value and quantity of the requirements specified in the brief. The validation also highlights some practical limitations including potential political barriers, time constraints, specialist facilitator and resources limitations. Moreover, the net benefits of the developed 'collaborative briefing approach' are concluded to be very worthwhile, both in principle and for practical purposes. The additional significance of this study is that it researched and developed a "panoramic view" of briefing practices from a practical perspective, linked the knowledge of briefing to the domain of collaboration through a "collaborative briefing approach" and developed the framework for a new generation of ICT systems for supporting and substantially improving the briefing process. ; published_or_final_version ; Civil Engineering ; Doctoral ; Doctor of Philosophy
