PPP- Public-Private Partnership

The Public-Private Partnership is considered one of the main instruments used by the Brazilian State to attract investments in infrastructure. Through one PPP, the Union, the States and the Municipalities may draft and contract private companies which will offer public benefits on a fixed term.

The main laws applied to PPPs are the Federal act nº 8.987/1995 and nº 11.079/2004. The act nº 8.987 can be applied to regular concessions. On the other hand, the act nº11.079 can be applied to administrative and sponsored concessions.

The term PPP will be employed for the three forms of concessions (regular, administrative and sponsored).  The proper term PPP only will be applied when referred to administrative and sponsored concessions, according to the Federal act nº 11.079/2004.

The common feature of the three forms of contracting is the fact that PPP allows the State to decentralize the investments in infrastructure to private companies (“concessionaries”). Some of the PPPs may have concessions held by public companies, this scene tend to be less frequent.

However the fact that the State decentralized the investments in infrastructure to private sector does not discharge the task of monitoring and supervising the service that has been provided.