No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
EU Enlargement and the Emboldening of Institutional Integrity in Central and Eastern Europe: The ‘Tough Test’ of Public Procurement
Abstract
EU enlargement and the incorporation of the acquis communautaire are widely seen as successful and emboldening the integrity of political, administrative and legal institutions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The analysis reported here describes the specific problems associated with affirming institutional integrity in the field of public procurement, which constitutes a ‘tough test’. Public procurement is namely an area where the acquis swiftly gained pre-eminence in accession states, but whose complex regulations depend on a well-functioning judiciary, effective administrative supervision and limited corruption. The experience in Poland and Bulgaria, countries that represent different stages of institution building in this area, is compared. The results suggest that an EU-compatible public procurement regime is being consolidated throughout the CEE region. At the same time, that regime may only work well when boundaries between institutional subjects, as well as between the spheres of law, politics and economics, are upheld in post-communist countries.
... Nepotism, bribes, and cronyism are manifestations of corrupt behavior. Moreover, information asymmetry, common embezzlement of public expenditures and collusion create the possibility of corrupt preferential treatment for some companies in some transition countries (Ateljevic & Budak, 2010;Engelbrekt, 2011). Additionally, the legal framework, being weak, may result in corruption as shown by Jones (2009) who studied Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. ...
The paper explores the effect of private market characteristics on the access of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to public markets in some sectors. Using survey data of small and medium enterprises in the pharmaceutical sector in Egypt, we confirmed this effect. We found that regulations of drugs pricing and registration in the private market constrained the capacity of those firms to compete in the public markets. However, some other factors play it the other way. The policy implications of these findings indicate that governments need to account for private markets characteristics when designing support packages for smaller enterprises in public procurement markets.
Lately, it has become very common for public authorities to integrate green criteria into public procurement so as to encourage potential suppliers to adopt environmental practices. The public procurement is considered as an effective means for the promotion of green corporate practices protecting the natural environment. Due to the growing the emphasis on the concept of circular economy (CE), public procurement procedures have lately been associated with the concept of CE. Similarly to green public procurement (GPP), CE criteria have been proposed for public procurement procedures. In this context, this chapter suggests a methodological framework that facilitates the incorporation of CE principles into public procurement. It relies on the current literature and scoring-rating techniques in order to evaluate the basic principles of the CE in order to define suppliers that have the greatest contribution to CE. Furthermore, some computational examples are presented to display the functionality, usefulness, and applicability of the proposed methodological framework. The findings show that that the suggested framework is able to help policy makers to incorporate CE principle in procurement procedures as well as to motivate suppliers to adopt appropriate CE practices.
This chapter places in a comparative, cross-country framework analysis of selected secondary information about business risk from governmental corruption in the region comprised of East Central Europe (including the Balkans), the Baltic Countries, and Russia. The region is an important setting for understanding corruption and anticorruption reform. What defines this geographic region is that all the countries are transitioning from monopoly-party rule and typically Soviet economic and political domination. Globalization is drawing the region into world economic integration through increasing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Key information from several sources provides an analytically consistent picture. Corruption increases business risk for multinational and domestic enterprises. Corruption deters inward FDI, undermines corporate integrity, and reduces country and regional competitiveness. The chapter provides information and examples about corruption in 21 political entities. These entities range from reasonably clean to endemic corruption, with varying patterns of corruption and anticorruption reform effectiveness. The chapter discusses possible solutions and recommendations and proposes future research directions.
This chapter explains the overview of Electronic Procurement (e-procurement); the critical success factors and implementation of e-procurement systems; the barriers to e-procurement implementation; the perspectives on electronic public procurement; the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and e-procurement; the prospect of Green Public Procurement (GPP); the importance of Public Procurement for Innovation (PPI); and the intermediation of PPI. E-procurement, GPP, and PPI expand the aspects of enterprise resource planning systems, sustainability, and innovation, allowing the automation of internal business processes and providing the procurement-related platforms that support automation at a global level. The benefits of e-procurement, GPP, and PPI include reduced transaction time, increased productivity, improved standardization, enhanced sustainability, and simplified global procurement.
This chapter explains the overview of Electronic Procurement (e-procurement); the critical success factors and implementation of e-procurement systems; the barriers to e-procurement implementation; the perspectives on electronic public procurement; the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and e-procurement; the prospect of Green Public Procurement (GPP); the importance of Public Procurement for Innovation (PPI); and the intermediation of PPI. E-procurement, GPP, and PPI expand the aspects of enterprise resource planning systems, sustainability, and innovation, allowing the automation of internal business processes and providing the procurement-related platforms that support automation at a global level. The benefits of e-procurement, GPP, and PPI include reduced transaction time, increased productivity, improved standardization, enhanced sustainability, and simplified global procurement.
Following their political and economic independence in 1989, a group of ten Central and Eastern European countries (CEEs) embarked on major institutional reforms to modernise their economies in order to become an integral part of the global economy. This chapter provides an overview of the main institutional reforms undertaken in the CEEs and their effects on export competitiveness. The chapter focuses on selected meso and macro institutional reforms, namely price liberalisation, competition policy, trade and foreign exchange, privatisation, and corporate governance. The results show that institutional reforms in the CEEs were rapid and generally successful. All CEEs became members of the European Union (EU) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Institutional reforms contributed significantly to improved efficiency and growth in the export sector. The results also suggest that further reforms are needed to improve competition policy and corporate governance, both of which are still below the standards found in Western industrialised countries.
This chapter places in a comparative, cross-country framework analysis of selected secondary information about business risk from governmental corruption in the region comprised of East Central Europe (including the Balkans), the Baltic Countries, and Russia. The region is an important setting for understanding corruption and anticorruption reform. What defines this geographic region is that all the countries are transitioning from monopoly-party rule and typically Soviet economic and political domination. Globalization is drawing the region into world economic integration through increasing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Key information from several sources provides an analytically consistent picture. Corruption increases business risk for multinational and domestic enterprises. Corruption deters inward FDI, undermines corporate integrity, and reduces country and regional competitiveness. The chapter provides information and examples about corruption in 21 political entities. These entities range from reasonably clean to endemic corruption, with varying patterns of corruption and anticorruption reform effectiveness. The chapter discusses possible solutions and recommendations and proposes future research directions.
Following their political and economic independence in 1989, a group of ten Central and Eastern European countries (CEEs) embarked on major institutional reforms to modernise their economies in order to become an integral part of the global economy. This chapter provides an overview of the main institutional reforms undertaken in the CEEs and their effects on export competitiveness. The chapter focuses on selected meso and macro institutional reforms, namely price liberalisation, competition policy, trade and foreign exchange, privatisation, and corporate governance. The results show that institutional reforms in the CEEs were rapid and generally successful. All CEEs became members of the European Union (EU) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Institutional reforms contributed significantly to improved efficiency and growth in the export sector. The results also suggest that further reforms are needed to improve competition policy and corporate governance, both of which are still below the standards found in Western industrialised countries.
Public procurement concentrates large public sector’s purchasing power, and has a significant impact on each country’s economic development. The purpose of public procurement procedure is transparency, non-discrimination and accordance to the principles of fair competition in acquisition of goods, services and works necessary for the smooth functioning of the public administration. Besides, public procurement can be one of the most important instruments for sustainable development and other purposes useful to the whole society and the economy of the country. This article briefly discusses the concept of sustainable public procurement, reveals its main ideas and applications. One of them, the social sphere, was chosen the main object of the research. The possibility to decrease unemployment, to increase an integration of socially vulnerable group, and to achieve other socially-oriented goals through an effective implementation of the social aspect of sustainable public procurement has been illustrated. Thus, the article analyses the concept of social procurement, assesses the current situation in Lithuania, overviews the good practice of other countries and provides recommendations for measures to extend the application of socially oriented procurement.
Pursuant to the same logic that prevailed when Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman reached out to Germany after the end of World War II, and in keeping with the promise made in the Preamble of the founding treaty, the EU now reached out to Central and Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War and offered integration. In recognition of the difficulties for the EU on the one side of absorbing a large number of countries without jeopardizing the functioning of the institutions, and the difficulties for the Central and Eastern European Countries ("CEECs") on the other side of transforming themselves into modern democracies with rule of law and functioning market economies, a number of pre-conditions for accession and a number of support schemes for the transformation were established. The present Article analyzes those pre-conditions that were supposed to promote the development of rule of law, as well as those schemes that were intended to support this development. It concludes that first, the concept of “rule of law,” although often quoted, is poorly defined and understood and this is an obstacle for countries aspiring to build a system based on rule of law. Second, Western support for the transformation in Central and Eastern Europe was and continues to be a combination of trial and error with a lack of appreciation of historic precedent and lessons.
This article represents an attempt to synthesise the results of existing work on European Union enlargement in scholarly journals and other publications, and to theorise those insights via the concept of institutional integrity. The basic question asked here refers to the impact of the incorporation of the acquis communautaire, roughly 100,000 pages of legal text originally developed for West European countries, on the reconstruction of political, economic and legal institutions in Central and Eastern Europe. Two dimensions of institutional integrity are examined, namely the relationships between: (1) institutional subjects, meaning the distinctiveness of key units of the system of government; and (2) institutional spheres, pertaining to boundaries between the realms of politics, economics and law. The article ends by predicting that institutional integrity will only come about at a moderate pace, through social change reflecting the long-term stabilisation of newly established political and economic structures, but also affirming that this process by virtue of pre-accession enlargement is well advanced throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection as well as empirical evidence on the effects of patent rights. Then, the second part considers the international aspects of IPR protection. In summary, this paper draws the following conclusions from the literature. Firstly, different patent policy instruments have different effects on R&D and growth. Secondly, there is empirical evidence supporting a positive relationship between IPR protection and innovation, but the evidence is stronger for developed countries than for developing countries. Thirdly, the optimal level of IPR protection should tradeoff the social benefits of enhanced innovation against the social costs of multiple distortions and income inequality. Finally, in an open economy, achieving the globally optimal level of protection requires an international coordination (rather than the harmonization) of IPR protection.
This book provides invaluable insights to one of the most difficult areas of European integration. Public procurement represents an instrument of policy choice for governments and its regulation interacts with a variety of policies, including the promotion of competition, employment, social policy, and environmental protection. The author vividly elaborates on the in-built flexibility of the newly enacted rules and provides a codified analysis of their interpretation by the EU judiciary. Finally, considerable debate is dedicated to future dimensions of public procurement regulation in the form of public private partnerships and concessions.
Organizations * Armies, Prisons, Schools * Organization Matters Operators * Circumstances * Beliefs * Interests * Culture Managers * Constraints * People * Compliance Executives * Turf * Strategies * Innovation Context * Congress * Presidents * Courts * National Differences Change * Problems * Rules * Markets * Bureaucracy and the Public Interest
The European Union conditioned Bulgaria’s membership on promises to improve government accountability.
Sumario: The evolution of European Community policy on public procurement -- Public procurement in context: the political,economic and social dimensions of public procurement in the EC -- The ineffectiveness of the rules -- The Commission's centralized enforcemnt of public procurement rules -- The Community system and the effective judicial protection of individual community rights -- The public sector remedies directive -- The implementation of the remedies directive in France and Spain -- The implementation of the remedies directive in the United Kingdom and Germany
Research examining the importance of path dependence and culture for institutions and development tells us that "history matters," but not "how" history matters. To provide this missing "how," we provide a framework for understanding institutional "stickiness" based on the regression theorem. The regression theorem maintains that the stickiness, and therefore likely success, of any proposed institutional change is a function of that institution's status in relationship to indigenous agents in the previous time period. This framework for analyzing institutional stickiness creates the core of what we call the New Development Economics. Historical cases of postwar reconstruction and transition efforts provide evidence for our claim. Copyright © 2008 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc..
Public Procurement: The Continuing Revolution (Kluwer Law, 2003) at 103 and 108. 116 PIS: 668 and 673. 117 PIS: 116. 118 PPO, op cit n 81 supra, at 27
- Lemke
Lemke, 'The Experience of Centralised Enforcement in Poland', in S. Arrowsmith and M. Trybus
(eds), Public Procurement: The Continuing Revolution (Kluwer Law, 2003) at 103 and 108.
116 PIS: 668 and 673.
117 PIS: 116.
118 PPO, op cit n 81 supra, at 27.
March 2011
EU Enlargement and Institutional Integrity
119 PIS: 365 and 557.
120 PIS: 149 and 449.
121 PIS: 422.
122 PIS: 527.
123 PIS: 179.
124 PIS: 3, 40, 255, 312, 440 and 663.
125 PIS: 74, 266, 425, 637 and 641.
126 PIS: 281.
127 PIS: 440 and 665.
128 PIS: 530 and 611.
129 PIS: 597.
130 PIS: 292, 509 and 644.
131 PIS: 8, 47, 125, 147, 281, 386, 440 and 529.
International Public Procurement Law: The Evolution of International Regimes on Public Purchasing
- A Reich
A. Reich, International Public Procurement Law: The Evolution of
International Regimes on Public Purchasing (Kluwer Law International, 1999), at 76.
A concise definition of 'institutional stickiness' says that it refers to 'a function of that institution's status in relationship to indigenous agents in the previous time period
- P J Boettke
- C J Coyne
- P T Leeson
A concise definition of 'institutional stickiness' says that it refers to 'a function of that institution's status
in relationship to indigenous agents in the previous time period': P. J. Boettke, C. J. Coyne and P. T.
Leeson, 'Institutional Stickiness and the New Development Economics', (2008) 67(2) American Journal of
Economics and Sociology 331, at 331-332.
The Experience of Centralised Enforcement in Poland
- M Lemke
M. Lemke, 'The Experience of Centralised Enforcement in Poland', in S. Arrowsmith and M. Trybus
(eds), Public Procurement: The Continuing Revolution (Kluwer Law, 2003) at 103 and 108.
116 PIS: 668 and 673.
117 PIS: 116.