AAV: Focus on PPPs an invitation to chaos - Puerto Rico Daily Sun - 10/11/09

Public private partnerships for development is nothing new in Puerto Rico, but Gov. Fortuño’s dogmatic focus on this form of financing as the keystone for island economic activity is an invitation to “chaos,” former Gov. Acevedo Vilá says in his new book “That’s how it was. Now what?” “[PPP] legislation approved in 2009 takes away from government agencies the power and capacity to decide when partnership is convenient. Under this legislation, a super agency with a super board of directors — under the leadership of the Government Development Bank — will be the ones who decide what will be privatized and, worse yet, under what conditions these contracts will be granted. This is an invitation to chaos because it takes agencies that really have the ministerial responsibility of providing services to citizens out of the equation,” Acevedo Vilá says in his book. A similar super board headed Superaqueduct project bidding and the subsequent high-level corruption that lead to the convictions of former Gov. Pedro Rosselló’s former campaign manager René Vázquez Botet and former New Progressive Party general secretary Marcos Morell Corrada of soliciting $2.4 million in bribes from four contractors, Acevedo Vilá noted. “PPP is a form of financing to get something built, not an economic development model,” Acevedo Vilá said during an interview with the Daily Sun, adding his administration promoted PPPs to build facilities for the 2010 PanAmerican Games and the Sheraton Hotel at the Convention Center district. “This financing model is going belly up in the United States because banks have no money, and this is when we decide to jump on PPPs as our salvation?” Acevedo Vilá asked. “The weakness … of the financial sector puts in serious doubt the strategy of depending on PPPs.” [Open link for full commentary. Great news the Puerto Rico Daily Sun is now online. Read all about Puerto Rico in English by outstanding Daily Sun journalists.]