In other words, let me get my hands on some government assets so me and my friends can get super rich and by the time people figure out that an unaccountable private company has screwed everything up we’ll long have been off to Costa Rica.
Public Private Partnerships, or what they used to call “graft.”
So often that is the case. Public officials tend to get sold on the idea that a project gets done but they do not have to raise capital for it. Public-private contracts tend to be complicated and to have key aspects that are poorly understood by public officials and their staffs. The usual arrangement provides private investment capital but commonly dilutes public control, skims off guaranteed debt payments and profits for decades, and eventually saddles the public with large deferred maintenance and capital costs for an essential public facility. Traditional public bond financing is usually a better choice.