Changes in government procurement: COVID-19 as an opportunity for corruption

Abstract

PurposeExplore the factors making emergency procurement more prone to corruption by advancing explanations for when rules and transparency are relaxed allowing corrupt practices to emerge. Describe institutional factors, such as corruption syndrome (Johnston, 2005, 2015) and legal system, and their impact on procurement rules changes.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative event study using publicly available data offer a timeline and explanation of government procurement control mechanisms and transparency roles in emergencies by comparing two countries. Argentina and Canada had very similar and advanced food procurement systems prior to COVID-19, but they took different stances when the pandemic broke out.FindingsLegal systems and corruption syndrome are linked, where Civil Law is related to Elite Cartels (Argentina) and Common Law with Influence Markets (Canada). The study contributes to understand the role of transparency to minimize the opportunity for direct purchases (electronic trails of decisions, justifications and approvals). Judicial system's actions favor corrupt practices and are aligned with elites despite the civil society outcry.Research limitations/implicationsResearch on corrupt practices has limited access to primary data due to fear of reprisals. Informal conversations revealing glimpses of corruption were used to identify publicly available documents. Numbers play a role in emergencies and performativity theory literature is enriched by providing an example of different interpretation of information when frameworks differ between civil society and courts.Originality/valueA comparative analysis that evidences the role of pre-existing institutional and social conditions shows when emergency situations will be used as an excuse to relax procurement control and transparency mechanisms which in turn facilitate corrupt practices.

Guest editorial: Transparency, accountability and the role of control mechanisms during the COVID-19 pandemic: a future research agenda in the context of emerging economies

“…The paper finds that during the period of a supreme emergency, where parliamentary accountability and tendering transparency are sometimes suspended, civil society has a greater role in ensuring accountability in public procurement. One of the papers in this special issue, Porporato and Ruiz (2023) performs a qualitative event study to explore the role of government procurement control mechanisms in emergencies by comparing two countries: Argentina and Canada. Although these two countries had very similar and advanced food procurement systems prior to COVID-19, they appeared to take significantly different stances in response to the pandemic.…”

“…This special issue addresses a number of important themes relating to role of accounting and control mechanisms during the COVID-19 pandemic in emerging economies. These papers specifically discuss how accounting systems have shaped organisational responses to the COVID-19 pandemic (Porporato and Ruiz, 2023, Uygur and Napier, 2023) and affected the market behaviour (Safari et al ., 2023), as well as the behaviours of accounting professionals (Harymawan et al ., 2023) and educators (Tetteh et al ., 2023). Within these themes, there are still ample opportunities for researchers to explore, for example, the role of public sector auditors and NGOs in ensuring transparency and accountability during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect the COVID-19 pandemic would have in the developing world's ability to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs).…”