At least partially! Requests for proposals (and often accepting lowest bidder contracts on less prestigious projects - some things never change), contracts with private entities for public undertakings (societas publicanorum), and corporations (often using a curious form of limited liability in which a slave was technically and legally owner of the firm) all existed by the Late Republic/Early Empire!
But on the other side of the Contracting table, a lot of water pipes were privately owned in Rome. And stealing water was very popular, if a pipe happened to pass by your house, it saved you a trip to a public source.
At least partially! Requests for proposals (and often accepting lowest bidder contracts on less prestigious projects - some things never change), contracts with private entities for public undertakings (societas publicanorum), and corporations (often using a curious form of limited liability in which a slave was technically and legally owner of the firm) all existed by the Late Republic/Early Empire!
But on the other side of the Contracting table, a lot of water pipes were privately owned in Rome. And stealing water was very popular, if a pipe happened to pass by your house, it saved you a trip to a public source.
Or an expensive connection - farmers were always illegally tapping the pipes for agricultural purposes XD