Independence of Public Procurement Authority

Abstract

Nowadays, many countries suffer from loss of confidence of their citizens. Huge protests are spread throughout many states even in the EU. The time has come to analyse the principles of good governance in order to make states trustworthy organisations again. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion by focusing on independence of state authorities. As public spending is often a cause of citizens’ dissatisfaction with governments, the independence of public procurement authorities shall be analysed in particular. This paper deals with requirements for independence and applies them to a chosen public procurement authority, the Office for Public Procurement, which is the central authority for administration of public procurements in the Slovak Republic. Since there have been many affairs related to misspending of public resources, the de facto independence of the Office for Public Procurement can be questioned. Therefore, the paper puts forward the legal framework in which the Office for Public Procurement operates, discusses its functioning in practice.