Public Procurement Practitioners Research Articles

Do transparency and accountability enhance regulatory compliance in public procurement? Evidence from Tanzania

With an increasing emphasis on ethical practices among public procurement practitioners, transparency and accountability will remain critical in ensuring effective and efficient procurement operations. This paper examines the influence of transparency and accountability in enhancing regulatory compliance in public procurement. This study was quantitative in nature and utilised a quantitative analysis approach to analyse data from 202 public procurement practitioners in Dodoma, Tanzania. The study applied structural equation modelling to examine the relationship between transparency, accountability, and regulatory compliance in public procurement. The results indicate a positive and significant relationship between transparency and regulatory compliance (β = 0.148, p = 0.048). The study also reveals that accountability is a significant and positive factor that promotes regulatory compliance (β= 0.366, p < 0.001). The study’s findings offer valuable insights for public procurement practitioners to establish well-defined standards of practice concerning transparency and accountability in procurement operations, with the aim of improving regulatory compliance. The research contributes to the existing literature on enhancing procurement compliance in the public sector by exploring the role of transparency and accountability in procurement regulatory compliance in Tanzania.

Greening procurement: Exploring evolving practices in an Irish university

Including green criteria in the public procurement of goods and services requires increased expertise, new methodologies, more significant monitoring efforts and more support towards innovation. These added complexities influence procurement professionals and their everyday practices. This article explores the under-researched issue of practitioner-led beliefs, attitudes, and their accounts of Green Public Procurement (GPP). We delve into a qualitative case study of University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland to explore the journey of procurement professionals in introducing GPP across the various sectors and departments of the university. We draw from interviews, a horizon scanning workshop, and secondary materials to capture and build on the expertise of a broad range of staff in UCC with experience in this area. We use this collective viewpoint to make sense of GPP and to position such views relative to ongoing policy priorities, looking at past, present, and future outlooks. The research shows that efforts have been made to introduce green criteria in new tenders. These gradually became wider opportunities to develop competencies, skills, and stimuli to implement more impactful strategies. The research also shows underdeveloped practices around supporting innovation, monitoring, and post-award evaluation. Overall, the paper offers a unique perspective based on the day-to-day practice of public procurement practitioners. While the case study is geographically bound and therefore presents difficulties in replicating findings, it provides a new lens for researching GPP adoption through interaction with practitioners.

English

While the current economic crisis clearly puts pressure on governments to cut spending and save money, and whilst the call for a more cohesive interface between the public and private sectors is currently resonating, public procurement has been marred by scandals, mismanagement, and possibly malpractices. According to the literature, corporate integrity drives transactional behaviors by acting as a hidden hand of social factors that are frequently beyond an individual's control. But scantly studied, as behavioral control mechanism in transaction costs. This paper studies the moderating effect of integrity on the relationship between transaction costs’ behavioral dimensions and competitive tendering in public procurement. Following a literature review, the paper takes a conceptual framework towards developing evidence of cascaded transaction costs’ behavioral dimensions, bounded rationality and opportunism. Formal research propositions amplify both concepts and its relationship with independent variable and dependent variables. The results are based on the empirical data collected from a self-administrative survey from public procurement practitioners in Tanzania. Descriptive and Hierarchical regression results reveals that public procurement practitioners’ perceived transaction costs to negatively when related with competitive tendering as moderated by integrity. This means, integrity can moderate the behaviors of public procurement practitioner which, in turn, accelerates efficiency of competitive tendering by reducing transaction costs.   Key words: Transaction costs, competitive tendering, integrity, public procurement.

Leadership and stewardship in public procurement: roles and responsibilities, skills and abilities

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the roles and responsibilities most important to public procurement practitioners to learn about procurement’s influence in the public management setting. Also, the skills and abilities associated with these roles and responsibilities are identified and discussed to implicate the strategic orientations of practitioner work and the skills and abilities that support these endeavors.Design/methodology/approachThe 2020 National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP) survey is used as a method of primary data collection and analysis. Factor analyses are run to yield relationships between the roles and responsibilities in public procurement to determine what it is that public practitioners value the most in their work, as well as to control for skills and abilities, to implicate the ways in which these roles and responsibilities are approached from a strategic perspective.FindingsThe results demonstrate that public procurement roles and responsibilities do not easily fit into any one category of public management, and that qualitative factors in public procurement are rated to be more important than quantitative factors. Additionally, the skills and abilities deemed to be most important in completing these roles and responsibilities implicate qualitative traits such as building trust and credibility, effective communications and relationship management.Social implicationsThe study demonstrates that although public procurement practitioners view the socio-economic roles and responsibilities to be most important, such as in creating a culture of continuous improvement, developing a thriving workplace, supporting an ethical workplace and providing professional development opportunities, that public procurement falls short because the actual implementation of social and environmentally sustainable policies and fostering of an ethical professional culture are not viewed to be important by practitioners. The study offers leadership and stewardship as an approach to combat this lack of follow-through by public procurement departments.Originality/valueThis study provides exclusive access to the 2020 NIGP study and, to the best of the author’s knowledge, is the first research of its kind to highlight the roles and responsibilities, skills and abilities viewed to be most important by public procurement practitioners. Additionally, the link between skills and abilities, and roles and responsibilities is discussed to implicate leadership and stewardship in the strategic orientations of public procurement.

Conceptual framework for integrating environmental sustainability into supplier selection in procurement decisions

Theories are used to improve conceptualization of research ideas. These theories enhance valuable elucidations that helps us to grasp the meaning of research findings. Nevertheless, the use of theories to promote studies in green supplier selection in procurement decisions has attracted little attention. With the emergence of sustainable procurement, public procurement practitioners in Ghana are yet to achieve relevant knowledge on green supplier selections due to insufficient knowledge and inadequate appropriate frameworks. The flagrancy of the consequences of public procurers’ failure to integrate environmental considerations into supplier selection explains the adoption of a multi-theory approach for comprehension of the dynamics of green integration into supplier selection. In this paper, the practicality of three theories for improving the understanding of the influential factors enhancing the integration of environmental sustainability into supplier selection was reviewed. The three theories are: Resource Based Theory, Human Capital Theory and Absorptive Capacity Theory. This review uncovered knowledge management, top management commitment, and environmental management capabilities as important elements needed for the integration of environmental sustainability into supplier selection in public procurement. The theoretical review yielded a framework that conceptualizes knowledge and capabilities of practitioners relevant to incorporation of environmental sustainability into supplier selection in public procurement.

Practitioners' learning about healthcare supply chain management in the COVID-19 pandemic: a public procurement perspective

PurposeThe procurement and supply of crucial healthcare products in the early stages of the COVID-19 emergency were chaotic. To prepare for future crises, we must be able to describe what went wrong, and why, and map out ways to build agility and resilience. How can this be done effectively, given the highly complex and diverse network of actors across governments, care providers and supply chains, and the extreme uncertainty and dynamism in the procurement system and supplier markets? The purpose of this study was to capture learning from practitioners in “real time” in a way that could frame and inform capacity building across healthcare systems with varying procurement and supply management maturity.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory study involved interviews with 58 senior public procurement practitioners in central and regional governments, NGOs and leaders of professional organizations from 23 countries, very early in the COVID crisis. Following the first, inductive phase of analysis leading to five descriptive dimensions, the awareness-motivation-capability (A-M-C) framework was applied in a further round of coding, to understand immediate challenges faced by procurement practitioners, how the complex, multi-level procurement system that shaped their motivations to respond and critical capabilities required to face these challenges.FindingsDevelopments across 23 countries and practitioners' learning about procurement and supply in the pandemic crisis can be captured in five overarching themes: governance and organization, knowledge and skills, information systems, regulation and supply base issues. Together these themes cover the strengths and gaps in procurement and supply capability encountered by procurement leaders and front-line personnel. They highlight the various facets of structure, resource and process which constitute organizational capability. However, to account better for the highly dynamic situation characterized by both unprecedented rivalry and cooperation, analysts must also pay attention to actors' emerging awareness of the situation and their rapidly changing motivations.Originality/valueThe application of the A-M-C framework is unique in the healthcare supply chain and disaster management literature. It enables a comprehensive overview of healthcare procurement from a system perspective. This study shows how increasing system preparedness for future emergencies depends both on developing critical capabilities and understanding how awareness and motivation influence the effective deployment of those capabilities.

Antecedents of Opportunism on Integrity in Competitive Tendering

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.

Do pressures foster sustainable public procurement? An empirical investigation comparing developed and developing economies

There is limited understanding of how various pressures foster sustainable public procurement, particularly in the context of developed versus developing economies. Using Institutional Theory, this paper develops a theoretical model to provide a nuanced understanding of how institutional pressures and citizens’ attitude towards sustainability affect the level of sustainability adoption in public procurement and how this impacts sustainability performance. Using a sample of 546 public procurement practitioners from 102 countries, a structural equation model to test the proposed hypotheses is developed. The proposed conceptual model has been validated on three categories of public procurement, namely goods, works, and services. Results show that institutional pressures and citizens’ attitude towards sustainability significantly impact the level of sustainability adoption in public procurement, which, in turn, improves sustainability performance. The impact of these pressures differs in developed and developing economies. Accordingly, policymakers may harness various pressures according to their context and the procurement category to foster sustainability in public procurement.

Bid rigging in public procurement market according to the decisions of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection

Aim: In the practice of awarding public contracts, sometimes the behavior of market actors, instead of competing with other entities, are aimed at illegal cooperation, including bid rigging. The above shows that healthy competition is not possible without efficient market control. In public procurement market this control is, primarily, carried out by public procurement entities: the President of the Public Procurement Office (Prezes UZP) and the National Appeal Chamber (KIO), and furthermore by President od the Office of Competition (Prezes UOKiK) and Consumer Protection and the Court od Competition and Consumer Protection. and Consumer Protection (SOKiK). The interesting issue is how the activities of the President of Office of Competition and Consumer Protection targeted to contend with bid rigging affects on the activities of President of the Public Procurement Office (Prezes UZP) or the National Appeal Chamber (KIO). Design / Research methods: analysis and comparison decisions/ judgment issued by the President of the Public Procurement Office, National Appeal Chamber, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection and the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection. Conclusions: The analysis has shown that the existence of specificities in the activities of the decision-making bodies and the judgments examined. However, in keeping with the specificity of the forms and objectives of control, these entities should cooperate, to a greater extent than before. Expanding the scope of cooperation would make it possible to better contend with bid rigging without changing the competition protection model. The introduction of institutionalized instruments for cooperation between the authorities seems to be valuable in terms of system solutions. Value of the article: The main value of the article is the comparison of selectively selected decisions and judgments representative of the problem under consideration and their comparative analysis in order to achieve the research objectives. The article deals with issues relevant to both public procurement practitioners and the state bodies dealing with procurement matters.

Implementation of sustainable public procurement practices and policies: A sorting framework

In general, there are many disincentives standing in the way of promoting change in public procurement practices by government agencies. Because engaging in sustainable purchasing requires some level of entrepreneurialism and risk-taking, a sorting framework is adopted to gauge whether some organizations are systematically more likely to pursue sustainable public purchasing (SPP) efforts than others. One-way analysis of variance and other methods are applied to a survey of public procurement practitioners across over 300 governments in the U.S. Results strongly suggest that agencies of various scope and reach tend to abstain from aggressively pursuing SPP efforts. However, when they do employ SPP, these efforts tend to be quite variable across and within levels of government and organizational size. In an effort to bridge theory with empirical data, a strong case can be made that the current state of SPP in the United States is the result of random and very cautious experimentation with little systematic pattern to SPP adoption.

Examining professionalisation in public procurement by ranking practitioner job positions according to job activities

Similar to public administration over the last couple of decades, public procurement is trying to define itself as a profession. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide a framework for analysing job positions within the occupation of public procurement and to examine the field's potential for professionalisation. The data originates from a survey of public procurement practitioners administered by the Universal Public Procurement Certification Council (UPPCC) that is intended to obtain information with regards to task and knowledge areas. Distinctions can be made between job positions that serve to rank order public procurement practitioners, which may eventually lead to an argument for professionalising the occupation. The job activities performed and managed in perhaps the fastest growing occupation within the public sector are catalogued in this study. Furthermore, practitioner membership to professional associations and attainment of certifications are analysed to test for the advent of professionalisation across job positions.

Public procurement and the BLS: operationalizing occupational duties

Purpose – Procurement is a specific, yet dynamic area of work and study that is recognized as an occupation by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). However, there is growing literature that substantiates differences in theory and practice, between procurement practitioners in the private and public sectors. The purpose of this paper is to validate the procurement occupational duties identified by the BLS with actual job activities performed and managed by public sector practitioners. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a survey of public sector practitioners to obtain information with regards to occupational duties and job activities in public procurement, as compared to a BLS proxy for procurement. Findings – Public procurement practitioners complete the occupational duties identified by BLS, yet there is one occupational duty in public procurement that is absent from the BLS description for procurement. Practical implications – Empirical data and analysis identifies the potential for public procurement to be considered its own occupation separate from private sector procurement, providing a foundation for development, management, and professionalization of the field. Originality/value – The public procurement practitioners who completed the survey have a high degree of professional orientation based on certifications held and professional association membership, a foundation for generating applicatory results for studying the actual occupational duties in procurement. The specialized job activities performed and managed in perhaps the fastest growing occupation within public sector management are catalogued in this study.

Driving sustainable supply chain management in the public sector

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of connections between sustainability policy goals included in public procurement tenders and offers and their achievement through contract award. Design/methodology/approach – Two hypotheses based on extant literature and the inducement–contribution theory were tested by means of a survey of 281 procurement files from 2007 to 2009 relating to eight product categories and four European Union (EU) member states. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings – Findings indicate that public procurement was more effective in influencing socially responsible goals than environmental goals. In terms of supplier readiness, vendors achieved greater progress in delivering green than socially responsible operations. Research limitations/implications – The collection and analysis of data are based on procurement files, which is a new but also a complex procedure. In comparison to survey data, the data from procurement file analysis are less biased. Practical implications – Public procurement practitioners and sustainability policymakers should consider the use of public procurement as a lever to attain environmental and socially responsible goals. Social implications – Evidence has been provided to demonstrate the strategic use of public procurement impacts on environmental and socially responsible goals, thereby benefiting society. Originality/value – This study contributes in three main ways: first, by adding to existing, limited research on the use of public procurement as a lever of policy goals attainment; second, by examining environmental and socially responsible policy in one study; and third, through providing evidence across EU member states.

The relationship between sustainable procurement and e-procurement in the public sector

This study examines the relationship between sustainable procurement and e-procurement, two recent initiatives in public procurement in many countries. A survey of sustainable procurement and e-procurement adoption was conducted with a sample of over 280 public procurement practitioners from 20 countries and with collective responsibility for expenditure totalling $45 BN. Using multiple regression, we develop a model to show that e-procurement and communication with suppliers supports some types of sustainable procurement, and hinders others. E-procurement and communication with suppliers may help environmental, labour, health and safety aspects of sustainable procurement. Conversely, e-procurement may hinder buying from small local firms that are not e-enabled.

Sustainable procurement in the public sector: an international comparative study

PurposePublic bodies are being encouraged to procure sustainably, to reduce their social and environmental footprint and in order to stimulate sustainability in the private sector. However, little is known about how public sector organisations internationally are responding to this encouragement or of the conditions that are most conducive to sustainable procurement (SP). The purpose of this paper is to address these gaps in our knowledge so as to inform policy development at the government and organisational levels.Design/methodology/approachThe authors report the findings of a survey of SP practices within a sample of over 280 public procurement practitioners from 20 countries and with collective responsibility for expenditure totalling $45bn p.a.FindingsThe authors' analysis shows that some SP practices are evident in public sector procurement practice and that the extent and nature of SP practices varies significantly across regions. In addition, the authors highlight the main facilitators of, and barriers to, engagement with SP and investigate their importance for engagement with particular dimensions of SP.Research limitations/implicationsSurvey respondents are volunteers and may to some degree be more interested in, or engaged with, SP than other public sector organisations. The analysis is cross‐sectional and therefore provides only a snapshot of SP practice in the public sector organisations studied.Practical implicationsThe paper identifies how policy and practice in SP vary across regions, providing practical insights into whether and how government policies are being implemented around the world.Originality/valueThe paper provides the first systematic and comprehensive insight into how public bodies are implementing SP internationally and of the major situational factors that are shaping engagement with SP. The authors evaluate the current effectiveness of policy initiatives regarding SP and highlight the organisational catalysts and inhibitors of greater involvement in SP.

The implications of a muddled definition of public procurement

At all levels of government, inconsistencies exist regarding the terminology and the body of knowledge used to understand public procurement. Perspectives on what public procurement is, or should be, ranges from routine ordering to sophisticated analysis of government spending. Definitional ambiguities have hampered attempts to define the field and unify its focus. This exploratory article examines the implications of the muddled nature of public procurement that has led to debate and uncertainty about the proper role of public procurement practitioners. To address these limitations, three dimensions of all public procurement systems are identified, and a general definition is proposed for describing the field and its institutionalized practices.

Public procurement re-examined

Academically, public procurement has been a neglected area of study even though governmental entities and public procurement practitioners have diligently worked to improve public procurement practices. This article will identify common elements of public procurement knowledge through a brief analysis of the literature and will provide a summary of government efforts to improve public procurement practices. In addition, this article will comprehensively re-examine public procurement by using a systems approach as a method of inquiry. Finally, implications of the proposed public procurement system regarding future research and study will be discussed.