How Relevant is the Principle of Transparency in Public Procurement?

Abstract

Transparency in governance in general, and in public procurement in particular, has become the focus of lawmakers and civil society in preventing corruption among other objectives. In this paper, the relevance of the principle of transparency in public procurement has been espoused using a framework of definitions and reviews of purpose and importance of public procurement transparency. Specifically, the agency theory has been deployed to explain the purpose and importance of public procurement transparency. Through this the centrality of the principle in the fight against public procurement corruption has been confirmed. Although this essay espouses the position that there cannot be corruption-free procurement system without transparency, it has been argued that, despite its importance and attempts at legislating for it by many regimes, there have been difficulties in practice at achieving complete transparency.

Keywords: Public Procurement Transparency, Why Public Procurement Transparency? Transparency and Corruption,