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How to Build Nothing, Waste Millions, and Still Get Booed in Public
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Grab the popcorns. ​ Let me tell you about a project that had everything: Corruption Protests Love Treason. Political revenge And a final bill… with zero water delivered ​ Welcome to Mexicali, Mexico. A case that is on Spielberg’s table… or should be. ​ Once upon a time, the government had an idea: “Let’s build a desalination plant. The private sector will pay. We’ll pay later. Easy.” ​ Enter: A PPP for a $500M desalination plant to supply water to Mexicali, a dry city near the U.S. border. ​ The Plan (kind of) was simple: 37-year concession. No public tender. Signed just weeks before a new governor took office. ​ Even journalists supporting the governor could smell like something, right? ​ Well… There is something else… it wasn’t clear who would buy the water. Small problem. ​ The Backlash Locals were furious. Mass protests. People screaming: “They’re selling us our own water!” ​ You know… that kind of stuff… ​ Turns out, Mexicali had no water shortage. Not even close. The PPP was solving a problem… that didn’t exist. ​ How typical… Just like future-proofing 3+3 lanes highways for your grandchildren’s grandchildren now… as may be happening where I live… ​ Anyway. ​ The Lawsuits Begin New government walks in. Cancels the contract. ​ But here’s the kicker: Lawyers were probably having mojitos. Because the contract had no proper exit clauses and zero risk transfer, the government had to pay the consortium for... damages. ​ How much? ​ $29 million USD. For a desalination plant that was never built. Not even started. ​ The Audit Report Summary? No cost-benefit analysis No proper tender No transparency No water ​ The Lesson? PPP is just a tool. You can use a hammer to build a house… …or to smash yourself in the face. ​ When politics drive the deal — and nobody reads the damn contract — you end up with Mexicali: ​ A monument to incompetence, corruption, and fictional thirst. ​ Until the next trainwreck. In the meantime, I have better stories in the link below. ​
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Vicente Valencia
I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | C-Suite Executive | Mentor, Coach, Strategic Consultant | Real Estate Investor | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
Most PPP stories end in headlines. Claims. Inquiries. Mold. Political blame tennis. But today I want to tell you about a project so well-executed, it’s almost boring. Delivered on time. On budget. Met KPIs. No press scandals. No massive claims. No screaming auditors. You probably never even heard of it. Meet the Ararat Prison PPP in Victoria, Australia. What was it? A 350-bed medium-security men’s prison Located in regional Victoria Delivered via PPP under the Partnerships Victoria model...
Now, the story of a project that went so wrong, they had to spend millions just to undo what they built. The project? The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow, Scotland. Cost? £842 million. Procurement model? Traditional public procurement. Outcome? Let’s just say you don’t want to be admitted there. The Plan Build one of the biggest, most advanced hospitals in Europe. A new national symbol of innovation. State-funded. Fast-tracked. Public sector delivery all the way. No PPP....
Same country. Same contractors. Same scale. Same type of road. One was built through a PPP. The other? A good old-fashioned, government-run, multi-package mess. Let’s meet the contenders. Contender 1: The PPP Project: Peninsula Link, Victoria 27 km freeway Design, build, finance, operate $759 million AUD Delivered by Southern Way Consortium (Abigroup + Bilfinger + RBS + John Laing) Opened: 2013 On time. On budget. No drama. Not a single front-page headline. Which, in PPP terms, is a love...