Corruption risk analysis in local public procurement: a look at the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208523221126860 |
| Author | Javier Miranzo Díaz,Agustí Cerrillo i Martinez,Ramon Galindo Caldés,Judith Castro Carranza |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Corruption risk analysis in
local public procurement:
a look at the Àrea
Metropolitana de
Barcelona
Javier Miranzo Díaz
Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona
Agustí Cerrillo i Martinez
Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona
Ramon Galindo Caldés
Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona
Judith Castro Carranza
Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona
Abstract
Over the past years, the anti-corruption strategy in public administrations has been
shifting from a formal way of control towards a risk management and assessment
one. However, it is not clear whether these legal reforms at EU and at national level
are reaching local institutions. The study evaluates the degree of compliance of the
Greater Metropolitan Area of Barcelona by analysing a set of indicators divided into
five main areas: codes of ethics, oversight bodies, transparency, conflicts of interests,
and whistleblowing channels and protection. The results show that, even if there are
also positive outcomes, the process of transforming the public administration and its
contracting bodies towards a culture of integrity or risk management is still far from
complete at local levels, and there are still institutional and normative shortcomings
in terms of anti-corruption strategy and planning that should be promptly addressed.
Corresponding author:
Javier Miranzo Díaz, Open University of Catalonia, Av.Carl Friedrich Gauss, 5, 08860 Castelldefels, Barcelona,
Spain.
Email: Javier.Miranzo@uclm.es
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2023, Vol. 89(3) 919–934
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/00208523221126860
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Points for practitioners
This article explores the impact of the current anti-corruption legislation on local gov-
ernments and public bodies. It analyses the state of development of four key public pro-
curement areas of action within the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, gathering 170
entities of different legal nature and size. The results show that the impact of
European and national legislations seems to be still weak in local administrative struc-
tures, although the degree of development varies significantly among different types of
entities.
Keywords
public administration, public law, regional and local government, transparency
Current state of affairs
The principle of integrity has gained increasing importance in public procurement in
recent years (Huberts, 2018; Piga, 2011). Essentially, this is owing to a change in per-
spective that has turned the public administration, which until fairly recently was only
an object of oversight, into an active subject in the management and monitoring of cor-
ruption risks (Van Wart, 2013). The fluidity of the concept of corruption, its multifaceted
nature and the unviability of dealing with it solely from a regulatory approach have given
rise to a culture of risk self-management (Kerkhoff and Overeem, 2021).
In the field of public procurement, this trend has been embodied in regulatory mea-
rulings,
1
which in recent years have laid down new obligations and responsibilities for
administrations (Miranzo Díaz, 2019b; Miranzo Díaz, 2020a).
The first step at the European level was to consolidate transparency as a fundamental
principle underpinning all European law, making it a keystone in public procurement’s
legal architecture (Bovis, 1998: 220) that had its consequences in national legislations
(Casadesús de Mingo and Cerrillo-i-Martínez, 2018; Cerrillo i Martínez, 2018b).
Subsequently, the “fourth-generation”directives issued in 2014 introduced new rules
on preventing conflicts of interest, giving contracting authorities new roles in preventing,
detecting and correcting such conflicts (Soloveic
̌ik and Šimanskis, 2017). This legislation
sought to establish specific responsibilities and incentives –effectively redistributing
roles –so that contracting authorities would be obliged to implement detection measures
and thus become an added layer of oversight in procurement procedures (Miranzo Díaz,
2020b).
This new role has recently come to the fore with the passing of the December 2021
deadline for national transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of
persons who report breaches of Union law (Miranzo Díaz, 2019a). This Directive
obliges local authorities to establish an internal reporting channel in municipalities
with more than 10,000 inhabitants and public entities with more than 50 workers (Van
Waeyenberge and Davies, 2021).
920 International Review of Administrative Sciences 89(3)
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