Public-private partnership as an alternative source of financing of public tasks

Aim: The paper touches upon the issue of public-private partnership (PPP) as an alternative form of realising public tasks by the local authorities (Polish short: JST) in Poland. Motivation: Since 2009, the cooperation between the public and private sector has been used to an increasingly large extent in various areas of economy. The first part of the paper presents the legislation concerning the public-private partnership in Poland for the years 2009–2014 that regulates, defines and details the cooperation between both sectors. In order to present the scale of using the private-public partnership framework by local authorities in Poland, the last part of the text analyses reports originating from the Ministry of Economy, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development and the Public-Private Partnership Institute concerning the public-private partnership industry and concessions in Poland for the years 2009–2014. Results: Analysis of data and its interpretation were used in order to set out the perspectives for the development of the private-public partnership industry in Poland for future years. The statutory obligation to realise local authorities’ own tasks, combined with the limited amount of budget resources, forces the local authorities to look for alternative solutions. In the light of the analyses presented here, the public-private partnership framework may become a solution for the scarcity of financial resources for many communes, poviates and regions in Poland.