Join us for our next Research Seminar with Dr Gail Sheppard, Assistant Professor School of Business Maynooth University.
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Abstract:
Since 2002, the Irish National Development Finance Agency [NDFA] has performed key functions in the procurement of Public Private Partnership [PPP] in Ireland, which is considered an exemplary European PPP practitioner. With this arrangement, Ireland follows a global pattern where national or provincial PPP units, which are frequently organised as arm’s length bodies, manage the partnership-based procurement of infrastructure projects. This paper examines how the operation of the NDFA, as Ireland’s PPP unit, has affected various aspects of transparency and accountability. Based on a series of interviews with senior public and private sector PPP practitioners, we note a level of depoliticisation of Irish PPP occurred through processes of agencification, as the NDFA initially acted as advisor and then increasingly took on a lead role in PPP procurement. Our interviews suggest this had a varied impact on different aspects of transparency of Irish PPP, with levels of transparency varying from: a) weak in the areas of initial PPP decision-making, contract information and publication of benchmarking exercises, to b) strong in the area of bidding process transparency, and c) mixed in terms of bureaucratic burden and resultant bureaucratic process transparency. We suggest the current approach to PPP procurement could adversely affect the long-term sustainability of Irish PPP but conclude that existing transparency deficits are not insurmountable.
Biography:
Gail is a Lecturer in Accounting at Maynooth University School of Business, having previously been a Lecturer in Accounting at TU Dublin. She started her career as an accountant in industry, during which time she qualified with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Gail went on to complete an MSc in DCU, continued her studies in Queen’s University, Belfast before obtaining her PhD from University College Cork.
Gail’s research is multidisciplinary, focusing on public resource management and encompassing Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Ireland and Covid-19 management. Her research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals and she is also a journal reviewer.
Gail is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, a council member of the Irish Accounting and Finance Association and an external examiner for Letterkenny Institute of Technology.