Author : Jinan Kata'a Hassan and Sedqi Esmaeel Rezouki

Due to the decline in oil prices in 2014 and the years after, Iraqi government encouraged governmental institutions to engage private sector in financing infrastructure projects that have been suspended due the financial crisis through public- private sector partnership (PPP) as alternative source of funding. However, the participation of the private sector in filling that gap was unpromising. Therefore, this research is conducted to identify the reasons behind that in regard the projects of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Public Municipalities (MoCHPW). 17 interviews were conducted as preliminary step of data collection where 13 major impediments have been identified and organized within a questionnaire that conducted with a participation of 98 respondents from public, private institutions and academics. Means comparison was used to rank impediments also nonparametric tests were used to assess the agreement level of survey sample groups’ respondents towards. Findings indicated that the poor ability to conduct PPP projects feasibility studies by government organizations came the first on the top five impediments as ranked by overall respondents, followed by inability of government to set timetables for payments due to the lack of future vision of Iraqi cash status as it is influenced by the fluctuation in oil prices. The Lack of political commitment came at the third place and the lack of clear selection criteria for private partner at the fourth place and lack of private funding came at the fifth place. The overall findings indicated that government must more decisive in dealing with and resolving these impediments to ensure the success of PPP in Iraq.

Keywords: Suspended infrastructure projects, PPP, impediments, Iraq

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.9, No.3 (May/June 2019)