The Treasury is looking to engage consultants to advise on the partnerships in a pilot programme targeting five counties. Photo/FILE
What you need to know:
State is searching for consultants to formulate PPP policies.
The criteria for selecting the five pilot counties was not made public and Treasury’s PPU Unit officials did not immediately respond to a request for information.
Experts, however, say that it may take several years for counties to attract private capital because they will need to develop their internal capacity to do major projects.
County governments will soon be able to attract private financing for major capital expenditure projects when the Treasury completes work with consultants on how to structure the public private partnerships (PPP).
Treasury Monday announced it was looking to engage consultants to advise on the partnerships in a pilot programme targeting five counties. The intention is to ensure county governments can raise cash for their ever-expanding devolved roles.
Specifically, the consultant will assist county governments develop PPP policies and operational guidelines as well as support the PPP Unit of the National Treasury and county governments to formulate strategy and identify and implement pilot projects.
“The PPP Technical Advisory assignment will … provide an assessment of possible PPP projects and identify a pipeline of potentially viable projects,” said the notice by the Treasury.
The criteria for selecting the five pilot counties was not made public and Treasury’s PPU Unit officials did not immediately respond to a request for information.
Experts, however, say that it may take several years for counties to attract private capital because they will need to develop their internal capacity to do major projects.
“Counties may currently not be ready to do major PPP projects since they are still struggling to properly use the money from the exchequer. Let them carry out their mandate with the Treasury cash and then develop capacity to use private sector money,” said Samuel Nyandemo, an economics lecturer at the University of Nairobi.
Dr Nyandemo said the counties would need to do a survey of their needs for major capex projects.
“It would be pointless to attempt to do any major projects without doing a survey and feasibility studies,” said Dr Nyandemo.
At the national government level, a number of projects were identified last year by Treasury’s PPP Unit but most are still awaiting cash from investment partners.
The notice targets consulting firms but is open to individual experts.
“The expression of interest is also open to interested firms who may wish to propose individual consultants. In such cases, only the experience and qualifications of the individuals proposed shall be taken into account in the selection process and not the firm’s corporate experience,” said the notice.
Further, the consultant would assist in preparing draft terms of reference and procurement documents for the selection of transaction advisors, PPP experts, sector consultants and staff for the county governments.
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