Abstract/Summary

The literature on Value for Money (VfM) in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects in the UK has primarily examined VfM and its assessment in the contracting stages of the projects. However, most VfM issues arise at the post-implementation stage, where the contracts are executed towards the actual delivery of VfM. This paper contributes to the literature by examining VfM and its evaluation in operational PFI projects. It theorises VfM as a Gramscian ‘common sense’ and argues that no single conception is necessarily representative of VfM, but that different conceptions are contested and negotiated within the relations of power, and together represent a holistic notion of VfM. By drawing on a case study of a National Health Service PFI project, the paper problematizes the different conceptions of VfM and related VfM outcomes, through the use of interviews and document analysis. This paper finds that different conceptions are held of VfM and its outcomes, with each of them equally founded in social reason. These different conceptions follow to influence the operational management of the project. The paper also highlights different aspects of the operations of the project, and the impact those aspects have on the overall VfM delivery and outcome. Finally, the paper argues that the simplistic and one-sided representation of VfM in operational PFI projects as represented by HM Treasury, must be replaced by a complex and multi-layered representations capable of articulating a holistic notion of VfM, but in terms that maybe different and sometimes irreconcilable.