Nikolaos Intzesiloglou, Elisavet Panagiotidou

(Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)

 

 

Abstract: In the sector of public procurement we can observe many typical attitudes of a living society. The most interesting part of tendering procedures is the award of a contract. The choice of a contractor is sometimes a matter of “pure” competition, but it happens to be also a result of a less transparent procedure. Such rewards are difficult to discover and certainly the main purpose for avoiding the foreseen procedure is profit making. However, the existence of these practices in a sector (public procurement) which constitutes 14% of global GPA should not only be examined as an illegal attitude, but also as a dangerous one, because the award of contracts in sensitive areas such as health, security or education is required to receive the highest protection. Having the phenomenon of corruption described above as a basis, this paper attempts to reach the source of the problem. Which reasons could urge a contracting authority to decide and award a contract to a person or a company which does not fulfil all the requirements? Is this only a problem of human greed or is it something even bigger?

 

 

Key words: public procurement; competition; transparency; corruption

 

JEL codes: K120, O1, O35