Stewardship and administrative capacity in green public procurement in the Czech Republic: evidence from a large-N survey

Abstract

Background The uptake of green public procurement in the Czech Republic is known to lag behind the European standards. We trace this condition back to the adverse effects of a specific type of decision-making trade-off faced by the Czech public procurement officials, namely the trade-off between stewardship and administrative compliance. The trade-off means that public procurers are aware of administrative risks and complications attendant on the conscientious non-perfunctory implementation of green public procurement. Results The overall result is that public procurers ultimately come to prioritize the contract criterion of the lowest price over ecological criteria. The existence of this trade-off has been generally confirmed by the results of a unique large-N survey of more than 1100 respondents from a group of local public officials and mayors in the Czech Republic. Conclusion We have found that the decision-making of Czech public procurers is affected by the trade-off between stewardship and administrative compliance, which turn out to be mutually conflicting goals. On the one hand, many public procurers do possess a stewardship motivation that shapes their positive attitude to GPP. On the other hand, they are painfully aware of, and seek to forestall, administrative risks and complications attendant on the conscientious, i.e., non-perfunctory, implementation of GPP.

Gender Heterogeneity and Politics in Decision-Making About Green Public Procurement in the Czech Republic

“…At the core of the public procurement process is the public procurer's choice between alternative suppliers who may compete on economic costs and non-economic environmental criteria. This choice is also present in the GPP context (Plaček, Valentinov et al, 2021;Sönnichsen & Clement, 2020). Recent research on sustainable public procurement shows that public sector officials indeed state preferences for non-economic criteria, even though cost remains crucial (Lerusse & Van de Walle, 2021a).…”

“…A good example of such a country is the Czech Republic, which despite its membership in the European Union, exhibits one of the lowest levels of GPP implementation in global comparison (Yu et al, 2020). In the prior literature, the low GPP performance in the Czech Republic has been attributed to specific limiting factors pertaining to education, knowledgeability, and administrative capacity (Plaček, Valentinov et al, 2021). However, what has never been considered in the literature so far is that the low GPP performance in the Czech Republic and elsewhere may be due to the weak engagement of women in GPP positions of responsibility.…”

“…The practical and political significance of this hypothesis is anchored in its potential to illuminate the possibility of maximizing the contribution of GPP to attaining the goals of sustainability, especially in the context of the Czech Republic as a country whose GPP uptake and performance levels exhibit considerable potential for improvement (Plaček, Valentinov et al, 2021). This context is distinguished by a paradoxical combination of a heavy formalization and bureaucratization of GPP decision-making and its considerable discretionary component, which undermines the accountability impacts of formalization and bureaucratization and remains open-ended regarding its effect on GPP performance.…”

Green public procurement in the most visited European museums: a comparison and a mapping

“…GPP implementation levels differ widely, both across countries (Yu et al 2020) and types of public institutions, such as municipalities, universities, and political organizations (Plaček et al 2021;Badell and Rosell 2021;Pacheco-Blanco & Bastance-Ceca 2016). Extant research on the determinants of GPP implementation has paid little attention to museums that are public institutions dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage.…”

“…This argument provides a much needed and unique addition to the museology literature that so far has lacked contact with the issues of GPP implementation (cf. Plaček at al. 2021).…”