Kofi Bentil, Vice President of IMANI Ghana, says a lack of coherent policies on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)is what makes it a fertile avenue for corrupt officials to rob the state. Speaking on the Super Morning Show Monday, the Vice President of IMANI Ghana, a policy think tank, says there are no guidelines, for instance, on how government can enter such arrangements with private companies. Mr Bentil was commenting on a policy document - National Policy on Public-Private Partnerships: Private Participation in Infrastructure and Services for Better Public Service Delivery - which seeks to regulate PPPs in the country. According to him, such a policy document should be “pervasive - running though every PPP agreement. But in his view, it is certain most people don't even know about the existence of such a policy. Mr Bentil believes it is unlikely such a policy is being implemented, saying questionable deals would not be happening at the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial and Development Agency (GYEEDA), had it been in force. Joy News has over the weeks been exposing questionable deals under some of the modules of the Agency. The government has set up a task force to look into the corruption allegations at GYEEDA. According to Mr Bentil, PPP policies normally regulate only government and not the private businesses who come into the contract with a set of conditions. He conjectured that the current policy on PPPs (National Policy on Public-Private Partnerships: Private Participation in Infrastructure and Services for Better Public Service Delivery), is not a good one, saying that could be the reason it has not been followed. Presenting his views, Dr. Joe Abbey, Executive Director for the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) said although PPPs are a vehicle to bring private sector resource into public sector, there is the need for better negotiations capacity to ensure the private investors do not lose out. According to Dr Abbey, the situation with PPPs presently is such that, in attempts to make returns on their investments the private companies price services such that they make profits while government pile up debts in the process. Citing power generation as an example, he explained that private companies produce power for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to buy in bulk and supply but in most instances, the purchase agreements between the private power producer and ECG are such that the private producer makes profit while ECG makes loses because government absorbs part of the cost that should go to the consumer. Dr Abbey described the possible causes for the problems with PPPs as a minefield, and said the only cure to the potential corruption or inefficient negotiating capacity during agreements, is transparency in all PPP agreements.