Abstract
Opportunism negatively impacts relational exchange tenets in public procurement such as trust, compliance, professional values and ethics. It is manifested in behaviours such as stealing, cheating, dishonesty, and withholding information when executing competitive tendering. The problems of competitive tendering and its implications on public sector procurement have been identified as not only enormous but complex now that there is serious needs on the part of various government servants to provide poor services with little funds. However, integrity translates degree of reliability of public procurement practitioners, as bidders and all other stakeholders need to have assurance that they can rely on any information disseminated by the procurement entity, formally or informally. This study is endeavor to reach a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between integrity on opportunism dimensions, with a special focus on behavioural aspects in public sector. Primary data were collected through self administered questionnaire to public procurement practitioners and regulators in Tanzania’s Local Government Authorities of Singida and Dodoma Regions. Data were analysed through preliminary analysis, descriptive analysis and multiple regression analysis to examine effects of Integrity on Opportunism in Competitive Tendering. It is evidenced that integrity practices in competitive tendering are statistically significant and negatively correlated to opportunism. The findings will help public procurement practitioners and regulators in Local Government Authorities to take necessary steps to improve integrity so as to reduce opportunistic behaviours in competitive tendering. In overall, higher integrity is associated with higher level of competitive tendering performance.
Highlights
It is obvious that, the current economic crisis puts pressure on governments to reduce spending and improve savings
The valuable opinion of public procurement regulators and practitioners is displayed below through various statistical tables that show their responses on effects of opportunism on integrity in competitive tendering
Public procurement regulators and practitioners are becoming concerned about the opportunistic behaviour which includes Procurement Market Misconceptions (PMM), Obfuscating Procurement Issues (OPI), Procurement Contract Incompetency (PCI), Absence of Cooperation (AOC), False Threats and Promises (FTP), Disguising Attributes or Preferences (DAP), Procurement Information Distortion (PMC), Purposefully Confusing Transactions (PCT), and Goal Incongruence (GIG) as mentioned in this study
Summary
The current economic crisis puts pressure on governments to reduce spending and improve savings. Call for interface between the public and private sector to more cohesive is nowadays reverberated, but public procurement has been driven by scandals, mismanagement and potentially corruption [1, 2] Under such economic siege, public procurement through competitive tendering provides multiple opportunities for both public and private actors to divert public funds for private gains [3, 4]. The problems of competitive tendering and its implications on public sector procurement has been identified by many as enormous but complex and there is serious needs on the part of various government servants to improve level of services while maintaining integrity. This means, in public procurement terms, integrity is critical at all levels of procurement process
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