Informal Practices and Efficiency in Public Procurement

Public Money & Management. 2024. Vol. 44. No. 3. P. 225–233.

Rodionova Y., Nemec J., Tkachenko A., Yakovlev A. A.

This article studies the practice of predetermined choice of suppliers in public procurement in post-socialist countries. The authors conducted an online survey of suppliers in Russia and Slovakia in 2020, revealing that, despite different models of procurement regulation, this practice was being widely used in both countries. Some were justifying predetermined choice to guarantee due delivery and quality. Surprisingly, we found that Russian suppliers assessed 
the efficiency of public procurement higher than Slovak suppliers, which can be explained by more efficient monitoring and conflict resolution via the courts. We conclude that Slovakia possesses an insufficient level of monitoring and law enforcement in public procurement. 

Keywords: коррупция, государственные закупки, Россия, эффективность, Russia, постсоциалистические страны, efficiency, регулирование, поставщики, corruption, regulation, suppliers, public procurement, Slovakia, Словакия, post-socialist economies

Publication based on the results of: Public procurement and their impact on the activities of firms and regional development (2022)