Public-private partnership: between legal requirements and the real needs

• Author: Sergiu Cornea - Valentina Cornea
• Position: Cahul State University 'B. P. Hasdeu', Republic of Moldova - Cahul State University 'B. P. Hasdeu', Republic of Moldova
• Pages: 181-193

Public-private partnership: between legal requirements

and the real needs

Associate Professor Sergiu CORNEA

1

Associate Professor Valentina CORNEA2

Abstract

The overview image of the public-private pa rtnership is repr esented by

cooperation between the public and private actors to car ry out the activities of public

interest, cooperation ba sed on the capacities of each partner to allocate pr operly the

resources, risks and benefits. The main elements of the institutional framework are

established by the national legislation. The tr aditional domains for the development of the

partner ships a re necessary at the na tional level and for infra structure. The incr easing

tendency toward decentralization of the provision of services introduces a lot of public-

private opportunities like health, educa tion a nd other social ser vices in the non -traditional

area s, as well. The study analysis presents the idea of partnership a s a means of solving the

problem of more and more limited resources which ar e at the disposa l of public

administration. The quality of legal fra mework and government policies for the

development of par tnerships gives to this way of cooperation, either the quality of strategy

in the public policies, which purpose is to obta in greater benefits by combining the

resources of those two sectors, or the limited solution to the re-l aunch of the economy and

to meet the general interest.

Keywords: public-private par tnership, recipient, public interest, public services,

capabilities, r esources, risks and policies.

JEL Classification: K23

Socio-economic conditions of the XXI century imposed both diversify and

find new forms of organization and delivery of services to meet the public interest.

Peter Thomas's thesis that the service is provided in a competition with time,3 is

confirmed by the behavior of service users, more responsive to technical and

scientific progress, and at the same time, demand-driven services and use their

welfare benefits. Over the last decade of the twentieth century, more and more

countries – both inside and outside the OECD area – began using public-private

partnerships in public service. In this new perspective, "public services are no

longer confined to the state, which the government has the organization and

functioning"4. Professor Ioan Alexandru believes that the administration used to

create partnership with the private sector in an effort to deepen the meaning of the

1 Sergiu Cornea, Cahul State University "B. P. Hasdeu", Republic of Moldova, s_cornea@yahoo.com

2 Valentina Cornea, Cahul State University "B. P. Hasdeu", Republic of Moldova,

valycornea@yahoo.com

3 Quote by: Ion Plumb (coordinator), Public Service Management. The document is available online

at http://www.biblioteca-digitala.ase.ro/biblioteca/carte; last access: 24.08.2012.

4 Ioan Alexandru, Theoretical considera tions of public-private partnership, in "Public Law Journal",

no. 1, 2004, All Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, p. 29.