Ethical Risks in Public-Private Partnerships: The Case of Lahore Waste Management Company

The world is coming up with new solutions to old problems in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness in public service delivery. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is a relatively new form of participatory governance. Th is approach is linked with New Public Management (NPM) and, since its inception, the private sector has taken over the entire world despite in-congruence and incompatibility in indigenous values and cultures. PPP is also claimed to be the best solution in terms of service delivery; however, its effectiveness is yet to be achieved. Th e purpose of this study is to find the effectiveness of the PPP mode of governance. Th is study is qualitative in nature and has taken one entity based on PPP as a case, i.e. Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), in order to study the impact of this solution to all, the ills of public service delivery. Fourteen officials were interviewed in this study of LWMC (a quasi-governmental institution) and its private partners. Findings suggest that this PPP mode has major ethical risks in the form of lack of transparency in awarding contracts, equity-efficiency trade-off , overall conflict of philosophy of public and private sector, low professionalism, value for money (compromise on cost and quality), and weak accountability mechanisms.