Five dilemmas in public procurement

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-15-02-2015-B003
Date01 March 2015
Pages177-207
Published date01 March 2015
AuthorClifford P. McCue,Eric Prier,David Swanson
Subject MatterPublic policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management,Government,Economics,Public Finance/economics,Texation/public revenue
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2, 177-207 SUMMER 2015
FIVE DILEMMAS IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT
Clifford P. McCue, Eric Prier, and David Swanson*
ABSTRACT. Procurement systems in democratic governments across the
globe face competing demands , conflated values and goals, and are being
called upon to address societies “wicked” problems under the rubric of
government “reform.” As a result, government purchasing professionals are
being challenged to develop new flexible structures a nd processes that
devolve purchasing responsibility, yet maintain accountability and control;
limit the opportunity for fraud/mismanagement while reducing operational
constraints; increase economic efficiency while satisfying political demand s
for minority/local/small and women owned business participation; increase
open and transparent competition while achieving best value; and applying
best practices while confronting legal l imitations. Essentially these dilemmas
have placed public procurement at the forefront of government reform
efforts. The current study delineates the nature of five dilemmas that
purchasing practitioners face, and the implications of these dilemmas for
purchasing in the public sphere are explored. Given the complexity of these
dilemmas, procurement professionals will be continually called upon to
balance these inherent tensions with little guidance from policymakers or
elected officials.
INTRODUCTION
The link between poor procurement practices in government and
economic growth are unambiguous (Pagell, Wasserman & Zhaohui,
2010; McCue, Buffington, & Howell, 2007). Therefore governmental
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* Clifford McCue, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor, Florida Atlantic
University. His current research interest is public budgeting and public
procurement. Eric Prier, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor, Department of
Political science, Florida Atlantic University. His current research interest is
in the intersectio n of political economy, organization theory, supply chain
management, and the social sciences. David Swanson, Ph.D. candidate,
School of Public Administration, Florida Atlantic University, is a Specia l
Investigator for the Florida Department of Financial Services
Copyright © 2015 by PrAcademics Press
178 MCCUE, PRIER & SWANSON
reform efforts that attempt to increase economic growth will not only
require an understanding of the complex nature of public
procurement, but reform efforts in the public domain must also
simultaneously address issues of accountability, transparency,
fairness, and economic efficiency (Schiele, 2009; Lenders & Fearon,
2008; Kattel & Lember, 2010). Thus the particularly complex nature
of public procurement makes coordination among numerous
segmentswhether they be governments, businesses (suppliers), or
political actorsof society critical to the successful implementation of
strategies that might promote accountability and improve governance
(Blair, 2000; Benner, Reinicke, & Witte, 2004). Yet, little is known
about the various values and goals that underlie the public sector
procurement process, other than noting there is a host of conflated
and conflicting values and goals that purchasing professionals must
attend to on a daily basis.
This may not be overly problematic if those charged with
determining which value or goal is to be selected over other values
and goals. For example, public purchasing professionals are
constantly called upon to provide goods or services to their respective
entities efficiently. However, there may be competing demands, such
as a buy local preference (Tucker, 1998; Thai, 2001; Ssennoga,
2006) that may inhibit the actualization of efficiency (Qiao, Thai &
Cummings, 2009). Moreover, given that democratic governments
across the globe promote open and fair competition in the purchasing
process (Trybus, 2006), the realization of these values have a direct
relationship to the costs of doing business. When confronted with
these situations, where do purchasing professionals turn to for
deciding which value or goal to pursue?
Performance of public procurement systems is frequently used to
measure the integrity of governments in power (Mamiro, 2012). Since
there is no established metric to resolve these issues, successful
procurement reform may be dependent on which values and goals
are pursued by procurement professionals. Under this condition,
public sector procurement professionals are instrumental in any
reform effort that requires government intervention into the
marketplace. In fact, procurement professionals may be struggling to
balance the inherent tensions between what is directly in front of
them with what they perceive as the right direction to follow.

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