Innovating mature public private partnerships: Danish municipalities and construction firms in networked public services

The establishment of private public partnerships in Denmark in relation to construction became a very hot topic indeed, when a municipality ended up close to bankruptcy in the spring of 2002, due to a very innovative and creative exploitation of various PPP-arrangements including sales and lease back. Such PPP arrangements started flourishing in Danish municipalities from the late nineties, with this very scandalized municipality as model. Although a number of arrangements were established, many more were possibly halted because of the incident. Establishing these arrangements is therefore in a Danish context still a central issue for PPPs. For the vast majority of running PPPs however, the central issue is not fraud, but rather how to develop the partnership further, given that they are established. Drawing on new public management perspectives it is argued that the future model of public services is the network of a mixed set of players (private, voluntary and public). Such networks might be strong in combining forces and strength from these various sectors in producing present public services. However the discussion raised here is how innovation and improvement of public services can develop in such circumstances. Contracts, “luke warm” trust relations and the like might become serious barriers for innovation. The paper view innovation in PPP as innovations in cross-sectoral networks and built on Danish case studies. Examples of Danish PPP are given highlighting the role of the construction firms. One case is a wastewater plant, driven by two construction firms on the financial basis provided by a third party. The production has been running for three years, In this period various innovations in the process and product-side of this public service have been suggested and some have been successful others not. The experiences illustrate the importance of recognizing public private partnerships as emergent political arenas. It is suggested to develop meta-governance frames for the partnerships encompassing guidelines for contracts, organizations and management. And to create frames for organized innovation in the public services also beyond what can be previewed by initial contracts.