Public Private Partnership Act, 2020 (Act 1039)

This section says the Act’s purpose is to regulate public-private partnership arrangements and promote private sector resources for infrastructure and services.

This section says the Act applies to contracting authorities, partnership arrangements, and related partnership functions, but excludes several listed matters.

A contracting authority must ensure that responsible persons keep records of decisions and account for decisions made.

A contracting authority must make sure its partnership arrangements include safeguards for the public, affected persons, and employees, and that public-private partnership activities comply with environmental, climate, and social safeguard standards.

A contracting authority must allocate partnership risks first to the party best able to control and manage them, and the partnership documents must show that allocation.

Contracting authorities must study feasibility for potential partnership projects, and the Minister must review exposure, advise Cabinet, and report to Parliament.

Partnership project procurement must be fair, transparent, competitive, and open, with public access and reasons required for unsolicited proposals.

A contracting authority must ensure adequate stakeholder consultation at every stage of each public-private partnership process it undertakes.

For partnership arrangements, procurement procedures must be consistent with this Act, the Regulations, and the Guidelines, even if another enactment says otherwise.

A contracting authority must structure public-private partnership projects to support local content, technology transfer, and local industry/private sector promotion.

A contracting authority pursuing a public-private partnership must ensure the arrangement delivers net benefit and must assess value for money.

Parliament is the final approval authority for certain public-private partnership projects that require parliamentary approval.

A contracting authority must submit certain public-private partnership projects to Cabinet for prior approval.

The Public Investment Unit of the respective Sector Ministries is the appraising authority for partnership projects.

The Regional Planning Coordinating Unit of the Regional Coordinating Council is the appraising authority for local government authorities within its jurisdiction.

The General Assembly of a District Assembly is the approving authority for public-private partnership projects when acting in a formal session under the Assembly’s standing orders.

The Controller and Accountant-General must include PPP-related transactions in the national accounts and apply the relevant IPSAS standards for PPP arrangements and projects.

The Auditor-General must annually carry out compliance and related audits, and the special purpose entity must send audited accounts and financial statements to the Office and the Auditor-General.

This section establishes a Public Private Partnership Committee to consider requests from contracting authorities to undertake PPP projects.

The Public Private Partnership Committee has power to approve, review, consider, recommend, and grant exemptions for public private partnership matters.

This section says who makes up the Public Private Partnership Committee, that the President appoints its members, who serves as secretary, and that the Committee may create sub-committees.

This section sets rules for Public Private Partnership Committee meetings, including meeting frequency, quorum, chairing, voting, co-option, and ministerial guidelines.

Committee members must disclose any interest in writing and must not take part in the related deliberations or decision-making.

Members of the Committee, its sub-committees, the Fiscal Commitment Technical Committee, and the Complaints Panel are entitled to allowances approved by the Minister.

The Minister may issue policy directives, and the Committee and contracting authorities must comply. The Minister also has to prepare and annually review a five-year partnership-project plan and carry out project approval and agreement-signing steps with listed assistance.

An office for Public Private Partnerships must be located within the Ministry’s division for public investments and assets, and it is supervised by the Chief Director of the Ministry.

The Office must support and oversee partnership arrangements, help contracting authorities, keep a project register, and carry out other functions the Minister assigns under the Act.

This section establishes a Fiscal Commitment Technical Committee.

The Fiscal Commitment Technical Committee is made up of specified Ministry directors, and the head of the Office serves as its secretary.

The Fiscal Commitment Technical Committee must act as a technical advisory committee to the Public Private Partnership Committee and carry out related fiscal-risk review tasks.

A contracting authority must include partnership projects in planning and budgeting, may hire expert support when needed, and must obtain the required approvals.

The Public Investment Unit is the focal unit for PPP projects for the contracting authority, and local government PPP projects use the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Planning Coordinating Units as the focal unit.

A Public Investment Unit must carry out project preparation, tendering, monitoring, recordkeeping, reporting, and other assigned functions for public-private partnership projects.

A contracting authority planning a public-private partnership project must follow the process in subsection (2).

A contracting authority may hire a transaction advisor if it lacks technical capacity, and the advisor must do the study work, report, and document submission but must not join implementation or advise bidders in the same project.

If a contracting authority plans a private partnership project, it must prepare and submit a Project Concept Note and a Pre-feasibility Study Report.

The contracting authority must carry out and support a feasibility study before starting procurement for a private party.

The contracting authority must run PPP procurement openly, competitively, transparently, fairly, and in line with the Act.

The contracting authority must invite prequalification applications, publish the invitation in the required media, state minimum bidder qualifications, and get written confirmation from the Minister on funding before procuring a private party when the project is partly funded by the contracting authority.

Bidders for a public-private partnership project must meet specified qualification criteria, and the contracting authority may require evidence and must evaluate or disqualify bidders in certain cases.

The contracting authority must answer clarification requests about prequalification documents when the request is made at least 10 days before the application deadline.

The contracting authority, working with the Office, must organise a prequalification bidders' conference.

The contracting authority must set up an evaluation panel, and the head of the contracting authority must notify bidders of prequalification results and share the names of prequalified bidders on request.

The contracting authority must issue request-for-proposal documents to shortlisted prequalified bidders, with the Office consulted.

A contracting authority may grant a local-content preference for domestic business, but a bidder cannot benefit unless the business is incorporated in the country and majority-owned by Ghanaians.

The contracting authority must answer timely clarification requests, hold a bidders' conference with the Office, and share conference clarifications in writing to all bidders.

Bidders must submit bids by the scheduled opening time, and must file technical and financial bids in two separate sealed envelopes.

The contracting authority must set up a proposal evaluation panel to assess bids, prepare a report, and notify bidders of the evaluation results after committee approval.

After Committee approval, the contracting authority must set up a negotiation team, negotiate with the successful bidder, and handle the second-ranked bidder if needed.

A contracting authority may cancel a tender before the related contract is executed if serious adverse consequences are likely, but only with Committee approval and the proposal evaluation team’s recommendations. Cancellation must be notified in writing with reasons, and bidders get no compensation.

A partnership project may be procured through the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund only in specified cases and with required approvals.

The Minister and the Minister responsible for the contracting authority concerned must consider the project negotiation report and jointly submit a report to Cabinet, based on the Committee’s recommendation.

Local government bodies must review and route partnership projects through approval steps.

This section defines an unsolicited proposal as a private party’s proposal to undertake a partnership project, made on the party’s own initiative rather than in response to a contracting authority’s request.

This section sets the process for unsolicited and private sector-led PPP proposals, including review, notification, registration, feasibility studies, bid handling, and some bidder payment and IP rules.

A contracting authority may enter into a public private partnership arrangement with a private party, subject to this Act and the Second Schedule.

The contracting authority must prepare a partnership agreement using the standardised documents, and the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice must review it. Any recommended amendments must be inserted before submission to the approval authority.

A partnership agreement must follow the Act and must spell out compensation and minimum obligations; it may also set project structure, private-party duties, and payment/fee arrangements.

This section requires specified officials to execute partnership agreements and gives the Office responsibility to register, monitor, and evaluate their implementation.

A contracting authority must prepare for contract implementation, file executed contract documents with the Office, oversee partnership management, and send quarterly and annual implementation reports.

A contracting authority or private party seeking to amend a partnership agreement must apply to the Public Private Partnership Committee through the Office and give reasons. The Committee may approve only if the amendment does not compromise the contracting authority’s obligations and may improve service delivery. After approval, the contracting authority must follow the Act and Regulations to complete the amended agreement.

A partnership agreement is governed by the law of Ghana, and the parties must तय? determine the place of arbitration.

Partnership agreements must specify which assets are public property and which are private property, including rules for return, transfer, purchase, retention, or disposal of assets.

A contracting authority may make land available for a partnership project, help a private party obtain site-related title and rights, and acquire land and related rights, subject to the State Lands Act.

A contracting authority or other public entity may help a private party obtain access rights over third-party property for a partnership project, if required compensation is paid and the arrangement follows the relevant law and partnership agreement.

If compensation must be paid for acquired land, it is paid either by the relevant contracting authority or by the private party undertaking the partnership project, depending on the project.

This section establishes a seven-person Complaints Panel for the bidding process, requires the Minister to appoint its members, sets a quorum of four, and allows the Panel to seek expert guidance.

A person may complain about a bidding-process breach, but the complaint must be written, sent to the Office with a copy to the contracting authority, and filed within the stated time limits.

The Complaints Panel must suspend a bidding process in some complaint cases, may notify bidders and the contracting authority, and cannot act on the complaint unless a complaint bond is deposited.

The Complaints Panel must hear complaints, decide them, and issue a written reasoned decision. The Panel must send the decision and record to the Committee, and the Committee must give copies to the complainant and contracting authority. An aggrieved person may appeal to the High Court within 30 days.

Private parties covered by this section must provide an easy complaint process, respond to complaints within 30 days, and report complaint information every six months.

Disputes between a contracting authority and a private party under a partnership agreement must be resolved using the dispute resolution method in that agreement, or otherwise under the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798).

A special purpose entity for a partnership project must be incorporated in Ghana, and certain company changes or share transfers need approval or are barred until a project acceptance certificate is issued.

A contracting authority must keep records of all matters relating to the selection and award proceedings for a partnership project, in the prescribed manner.

The contracting authority must make relevant partnership-project information available to interested persons, subject to access-to-information law and a fee for reproduction costs. The Office and the contracting authority must also publish listed PPP information on the contracting authority’s and Ministry’s website for public access.

The Minister or a contracting authority may serve written notice requiring certain people to provide information or particulars within the stated time.

This section establishes a Project Development Facility as a revolving fund.

This section lists the funding sources for the Project Development Facility and requires the Minister to create a budget vote for it.

The Ministry division responsible for Public Investment and Assets must manage the Project Development Facility, its money must be used only for listed project-related purposes, and the Facility must operate under the Act, Regulations, and Guidelines.

This section establishes a Viability Gap Facility.

The Viability Gap Facility may be funded by approved parliamentary moneys, development partner loans and grants, and concession fees.

The Ministry’s Public Investments and Assets Division must manage the Viability Gap Facility, which supports only viable but not financially viable projects and is capped at 30% of project capital cost unless the Minister allows up to 50%.

A contracting authority must submit annual PPP project reports and its next-year plans to the Minister.

The Minister must submit an annual report to Parliament in the first quarter of each year.

A person who fails to provide requested information under section 76 must pay an administrative penalty of 500 penalty units. Knowingly false or misleading information, wilful obstruction, contraventions, or instigation of contraventions are offences punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or both.

The Minister may make Regulations, by legislative instrument, to implement this Act.

The Minister may issue Guidelines on administrative and procedural matters under the Act and must publish them on the Ministry’s website.

This section defines key terms used in the Act, including authorities, project documents, close dates, local content, and PPP project types.