Inter-governmental relations and procurement non-compliance in African local government systems. Insights from Tanzania

Published date04 November 2019
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-01-2019-0001
Date04 November 2019
Pages277-294
AuthorParestico Pastory
Subject MatterPublic policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management,Government,Economics,Public finance/economics,Taxation/public revenue
Inter-governmental relations and
procurement non-compliance in
African local government systems
Insights from Tanzania
Parestico Pastory
Department of History, Political Science and Development Studies,
Mkwawa University College of Education, Iringa, United Republic of Tanzania and
University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the implications of inter-governmental relations on
procurementcompliance in local government.
Design/methodology/approach A total of 68 in-depth interviewswith local government ofcials and
councillors in four different local government authorities, members of parliament in the local authorities
accountscommittee and a committee clerk were carried outin addition to documentary review.
Findings Evidences from in-depth interviewsand documentary analysis point to central government as
one of key reasons for procurement non-compliance. The nature of inter-governmentalrelations enables the
central government to issue encroaching directives on local government procurement plans or take
handicappingactions on the nancial ability of the local governments to execute procurementplans.
Practical implications The study adds inter-governmental relations on strategies for improving
procurementcompliance in African local government systems.
Originality/value Despite increasingresearch on procurement compliance, the complexity of regulatory
non-compliance in local governmentprocurement has not been adequately analysed. The current study uses
an inter-governmental relations perspective to contribute knowledge on procurement compliance in local
governmentsystems of the Third World, sub-Saharan Africa in particular.
Keywords Local government, Inter-government relations, Procurement, Regulatory compliance,
Tanzania, Africa
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Regulatory compliance is a critical phenomenon in public administration theory and
practice. Weber (1947), for instance, considers continuous organisation of ofcial functions
bound to rules to be a fundamental category of a rational legal authority. In the same
endeavour, organisationaltheorists devoted efforts to devise mechanisms that would ensure
conformity to rules.For instance, whereas rational system theoristsdevoted their energies in
developing strict guidelines to govern participant behaviour, the human relations school
developed soft mechanisms (Scott, 1992). Merton (2012) cements this by opining that the
logic of organisational rewards and incentives is to promote conformity to its ofcial
regulations. Likewise, open system theorists did not underplay the essence of compliance.
Instead, they thought to overcome its dysfunctions by insisting on organisational
adaptability to environment. Despite recurring eminent attempts in the eld of
public administration against Weberianism, in this regard conformity to rules,
Inter-
governmental
relations
277
Received9 January 2019
Revised7 May 2019
Accepted9 May 2019
Journalof Public Procurement
Vol.19 No. 4, 2019
pp. 277-294
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1535-0118
DOI 10.1108/JOPP-01-2019-0001
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1535-0118.htm
Meier and Hills (2005) analysis reveals such attempts have never been successful. As
Selznick (1996) puts it, the spectre of bureaucracy had never ceased hunting. Regulatory
compliance is, therefore,a relevant topic not only in public administration but in otherelds
as well (Foorthuis and Bos, 2011).
Public procurement is one of the public administration practice areas where compliance
to rules is highly emphasised. This has been so because non-compliance is a channel to
terrible malpractices such as favouritism, nepotism and corruption, the key routes to
unreasonably costly procurements and service delivery inefciency. Procurement compliance,
dened in this article as adherence to procurement procedures, serves as a mechanism for
controlling incompetence which may be due to either apathy or deliberate abuse of discretion
(Soudry, 2007). For instance, Mariz et al. (2014) show that lack of procurement planning and
advertising bids favour opportunistic behaviour from public employees to take advantage of
the situation to advance personal benets such as seeking bribes. Despite the signicance of
regulatory compliance in public procurement, non-compliance continues to be one of the main
procurement challenges in various countries across the globe (Gelderman et al., 2006;Jones,
2007;Karjalainen et al., 2009;Kauppi and Van Raaij, 2014;Mariz et al., 2014;Thai et al.,2005).
Current research on procurementcompliance advances a number of explanations to why
government procuring entities (PEs) fail to adhere to standard procurement procedures
(Basheka and Bisangabasaija, 2009;Boer and Telgen, 1998;Eyaa and Oluka, 2011;
Gelderman et al., 2006;Karjalainen et al.,2009;Mbago et al.,2016;Mwakibinga and Buvik,
2013). Most of this body of research has taken an institutionalist perspective viewing non-
compliance as a regulatory, normative and isomorphic phenomenon (Scott, 2008). As a
result, non-compliance with procurement rules has been attributed to weak oversight
and incentive mechanisms to enforce compliance and deter resistance and unethical
procurement behaviour, political collusion, non-conformity of the procurement rules to
existing social norms, complexity of and poor familiarity with procurement rules, lack of
professionalism, as well as costs and risks associated with compliance. Kauppi and Van
Raaij (2014) have introduced a supplementary perspective viewing regulatory non-
compliant procurement practicesas an outcome of technical incompetence. Whilst these are
sound explanations, they fall short of explaining the complexity of procurement non-
compliance in local governments. This article uses an inter-governmental relations
perspective to contribute knowledge on procurement compliance in local government
systems of the Third World, sub-SaharanAfrica in particular.
The centrality of the inter-governmental relations perspective in understanding local
government processes and outcomes is much appreciated in the local governance literature
(Lafn, 2009;Agranoff,2004). Yet, previous research on local government procurement such
as Boer and Telgen (1998) and Basheka and Bisangabasaija (2009) view local procurement
processes in dissociation of centrallocal relations. Notwithstanding, the research on
procurement compliance in local government is scanty. Thus, the study aims at examining
the implications of inter-governmental relations on procurement compliance in local
government. This article advancesone major argument that the complexity of procurement
non-compliance in Africanlocal government systems cannot be fully understood in isolation
of centrallocal relations.Drawing insights from Tanzania, the article shows that the ability
and willingness of local government authorities(LGAs) to adhere to standard procurement
procedures is constrainedby the behaviour and actions of the central government.
The rest of the article is organised as follows: the next two sections present contextual
analysis of inter-governmental relations in sub- Saharan Africa and the nature of local
government systems as well as the extent of procurement non-compliance in Tanzania.
Then, theoretical perspectives on regulatory compliance are discussed. After that, the
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