PPPs don't work

I was pleasantly surprised by the level of honesty shown by African telecommunications operators when they slammed the state of public private partnerships (PPP) in Africa.

This happened during a panel discussion at the sixth annual Digital Africa Summit held in Sandton last week.

Private partnerships don't work, because the egos of government officials get in the way and agendas change when new officials get into office, some panellists and delegates argued.

Even when they have good intentions to accelerate projects, government officials are tripped up by sluggish bureaucratic processes, causing delays and/or postponements in network deployments, they said.

Sometimes, the funds are reallocated to other initiatives and the ICT project is cancelled at the changing of guard.

"In Europe, you can sue, but how can you sue an African government?" one panellist said.

Another problem is that some of the ICT initiatives are not well thought out, a delegate from Uganda noted.

It's not government's job to provide free and/or subsidised services to citizens, he said. "Government's job is to create an enabling environment where citizens can access these services."

Participants also questioned the values children assimilate when government gives them free services.

"If government gives away services for free, how are our children going to learn to appreciate the fact that they have to work for what they get? And why should they even bother to work for it, if they can get it for free?"

One outspoken gentleman even said what people don't usually dare say out loud in a public forum: "The only time a public private partnership works is when the private partner is willing to pay a bribe to the public partner."

When one half of the partnership criticises government so strongly and publicly, to me it means the problem is so big it cannot be ignored anymore.

Damaria Senne, senior journalist, ITWeb

Let me put this event into context. This was not a group of disgruntled C-level managers sent to a conference so they can learn what's going on in the ICT industry.

It was not a talk-shop either, where executives brag about their accomplishments for the benefit of media types frantically taking notes.

It was hosted by a well-respected institution and attended by executives from ICT industry players across the continent.

So when they criticised PPPs so vocally, I couldn't help thinking: "Finally, someone has taken the problem out of the closet."

I am aware that the panellists did not include well-known ICT players like Microsoft, Cisco Systems, HP, and locally, Telkom, Vodacom, MTN, GijimaAst, or even the State IT Agency.

I'm also aware that this column could be seen as another half-baked attempt by a hack to slam government, using made-up excuses, to increase readership.

I'm an activist at heart, and worked in the development/NGO sector for over a decade. I truly want to see ICT development projects succeed. So rubbishing government is not one of the objectives of this column.

But as I mentioned before, I am tired of large-scale development projects that are announced with fanfare, and never see the light of day when the media have gone home.

And when one half of the partnership criticises government so strongly and publicly, to me it means the problem is so big it cannot be ignored anymore.

Additionally, parties involved in delivering services to citizens must be held accountable. If the framework they work from is ineffective, then problems have to be identified and dealt with.

In my ideal world, government officials will set aside their much-touted egos, and consider the merits of the operators' criticism.

They will also develop real solutions without having to form a sub-committee to investigate the problem, holding a conference on how to strengthen PPPs, or scheduling a series of meetings trying to find "a way forward".

They will also develop something tangible, rather than having floating strategy and implementation plans that never get finalised.

The result will be that next year, at the seventh annual Digital Africa Summit, delegates will say that PPPs with African governments have become more effective in the past year.