Why public procurement openness is more important now than ever

Lucian Cernat, Zornitsa Kutlina-Dimitrova, 16 April 2020

The Trump administration is reportedly dissatisfied with international public procurement and the benefits derived from the US membership of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement. This column argues that US estimates of a huge deficit with the EU in government procurement misrepresent the level of EU openness by only looking at the ‘tip of the procurement iceberg’. In these critical times, improving the factual basis and the data reporting processes to ensure that all GPA members are fully informed about the benefits of international public procurement openness is more important than ever. 

Political donations and public procurement

Vitezslav Titl, Benny Geys, 13 January 2019

Despite public concerns about the role and influence of big donors on politics, questions remain regarding the mechanisms behind political favouritism to donor corporations. Using 2006–2014 data on political donations and public procurement allocations in the Czech Republic, this column finds that firms that increase their donations to a political party see the value of their public procurement contracts rise in the following year. Contracting authorities appear to engage in different forms of strategic behaviour to favour corporate donors, who tend to face fewer competitors in more regulated and open procurement procedures.

Public procurement markets: Where are we?

Patrick Messerlin, Sébastien Miroudot, 07 September 2012

Public spending on large-scale projects is often a way of sneaking in protectionism through the back door and there are many cases of outright corruption. With the EU and US pushing hard for more open public procurement elsewhere in the world, this column asks just how open these markets are, particularly in the EU, which claims to have the most open market in the world.

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