Port Authorities and water concessionaires: the role of reporting in management control and information systems

Since 1994 the seaport services have been deeply reformed in order to improve service quality and to reduce public expenditure. These changes brought to the establishment of new public-private partnerships between Port Authorities (PAs) and private operators. In this context, the aim of the paper is to investigate the reporting tools implemented by private operators (concessionaires) in order to support the PAs’ decision system. Besides, we propose a new approach to the control of the relationship between the Port Authority (PA) and his concessionaire. In particular, through case study methodology, we analyze the management of water services in the Naples seaport system focusing on the way the information are exchanged between the PA and Idra Porto s.r.l. The findings show that, despite the positive performances achieved by the concessionaire, the systems implemented do not provide enough information on the activities outsourced by PA.