Corruption and public procurement often go together, at least in Italy. Corruption must be continuously fought and it is also necessary to find appropriate ways for preventing it. However, this is not easily achieved, because of the wide-ranging features of corruption,
the variety of its causes and the sensitivity of the issue, including at political level and in particular where public procurement is concerned. This type of corruption has its own specific characteristics, stemming from the specificities of public procurement such as: the need for direct
interaction between public officials and the private sector at every stage, from die award up to the execution of the contracts; the complexity of the legal and technical regulations on public procurement; the difficulties related to financing and thus also to payments. In all these aspects,
public procurement can create opportunities for corruption, not only for sporadic, individual corruption but also for systemic corruption, which affects public administration and society as a whole, and involves organised crime to a steadily increasing extent. Since a long time, national,
European and international bodies and institutions, as well as legal doctrine, have been looking into appropriate solutions to corruption in public procurement, giving also useful advice to lawmakers. In Italy, since 2012, such a reflection has led to the adoption of new legislative measures,
which have recently culminated in the setting up of the Italian Anti-Corruption Authority.
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