This week the Ministry of Public Enterprise’s Overarching Policy for the Provision of Public Services and the updated 2023 Public Private Partnership Handbook was launched.
Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa acknowledged the Asian Development Bank’s Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI) that assisted the Ministry in formulating these important policy frameworks.
Fiame said these frameworks will assist the Government of Samoa in expanding traditional approaches to providing essential public services, such as education, health care, and infrastructure.
Maximizing public welfare will always remain our Government’s underlying objective, and the Overarching Policy for the Provision of Public Services will provide us with a framework to assess the best ownership and control arrangements for delivering public services in Samoa.
According to the Prime Minister, the frameworks have three interlinking driving forces.
First, there will be a greater focus on identifying services better undertaken by Public Bodies (also known as State Owned Enterprises/Public Enterprises) than by Ministries.
Also, there will be greater scrutiny on the performance of Public Enterprises and corrective actions taken by the Government of Samoa where necessary. Part of this scrutiny will involve challenging SOEs to show that they have actively considered the potential for using Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to add value.
Lastly, there will be an automatic screening of PPP potential for larger projects, which may require budget and/or grant funding.
It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that the community receives the public services that have been promised at the expected level of service and in a manner that reduces the impost on the taxpayer and user.
The Government of Samoa is committed to meeting this responsibility. PPPs are an important tool to be utilized in this endeavour.
