ABSTRACT
This Chapter aims to bring further insight to how the strategic plans of WSS operators in different institutional contexts compare. The main part of the Chapter comprises a case study located on the Caribbean Island of St. Maarten. In the case, one public and one private party compete to be given the opportunity to manage and extend the WSS services at the Island for the coming 10 years. The author was involved as an independent evaluator, and received permission from the government to use the case for scholarly purposes. This benefited the research greatly in terms of access to full information and gaining inside knowledge. The collected information is formatted in this case study to assess in a structured manner the differences between both parties’ intended strategies to manage the service provision. To test whether private WSS providers have different strategic plans compared to public WSS providers, the bidding documents are analysed for a specific tendering event, e.g. a 10 year contract in St. Maarten. In the following section the case study is elaborated. The case study description is structured in the following manner. First the background is given of the ongoing trend to involve private parties in the Caribbean WSS sector. This is followed by a more detailed analysis of the specific context and developments at the Island of St. Maarten. The decision process leading towards (possible) private sector involvement is reviewed in detail. Then, the actual comparison is presented between the strategic plans of both parties, along the dimensions of Boyne and Walker (2004). The case concludes by making some final comments.
