Due to Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs), schools and hospitals are being built that the government would otherwise not be able to afford. PFIs are currently preferred by government over traditional public procurement for the building of schools, hospitals, social housing and prisons. Straight public procurement is notorious for cost overruns and delays while PFI projects rarely suffer either. Another advantage and the most important for the government is that PFIs are what are called off-balance-sheet expen- diture. The cost of building is not funded by the government upfront. Instead the private sector pays for the building and the government lease the building from the private owner and guarantee an annual rent. This allows the government to spread out the cost and so PFIs help the Treasury to balance the books.
Question: Given the advantages of PFI over public procurement it is hard to imagine that public procurement will again be used to fund the building of public buildings.
Options:
A. true, B. false, C. uncertain
Answer: C