How Public Procurement Reform Can Drive the Fight Against Corruption (Part 1)

According to the OECD, “public procurement is the government activity most vulnerable to waste, mismanagement and corruption,” and over “half of foreign bribery cases occurred to obtain a public procurement contract.” Of course, discussion of corruption in public procurement has lately become hotly politicized in the US. But politics should not stop the integrity community from tackling this very real challenge. 

For 10 years, Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) has aimed to ensure that “the trillions of dollars spent on public contracts better serve people and protect our planet.” OCP looks at topics including anti-corruption, beneficial ownership, gender, infrastructure and more, using tools such as research, investigations, digitalization, data analysis and others. To understand how OCP is meeting the current moment, I spoke with Executive Director Gavin Hayman and Head of Communications Georg Neumann. The following is the first of a two-part series.

Hayman and Neumann explain that because procurement represents one in every three dollars of public spending globally, making better use of those funds can grow economies and unlock innovation. But citizens want procurement to serve their interests and have a positive impact on their communities. Small business owners want open and transparent competition for those bids. This is where the issue of corruption comes to the fore. 

As Hayman pointed out, frustration with corruption in public spending was a main driver of Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan. Early in its history, OCP supported Ukrainian civil society efforts to reform procurement. One of the results of the Maidan was the Prozorro e-procurement system, which has generated huge government savings and increased the number of procurements going to small businesses. The more that small businesses have seen peers win government contracts, the more they have been encouraged to bid, creating a virtuous cycle. Prozorro has thus led to a significant drop in public perceptions of corruption in Ukraine. 

Other examples include bicycle share expansion in Mexico City, where OCP helped set up better market and community consultations and build broader bidding consortia. As a result, the bike share’s reach was doubled at the same cost. In the Dominican Republic, digital tools, institutional capacity building, and cross-agency coordination and collaboration with civil society has helped reduce corruption. This civil society and small business engagement angle is crucial; beyond collecting data, and disseminating tools and methodologies, OCP empowers local coalitions to drive positive change.

Hayman points out that the drive to make better use of public resources is universal, reflected not just in recent US developments. Bureaucracy needs a “rethink,” he put it, and governments need to do more with less. In his view, we can test and scale new approaches in government, and then flip the switch when we are sure they work, versus more radical measures. That approach could have been taken with USAID, for instance.

Hayman noted that the loss of USAID anti-corruption funding may have unpredictable knock-on effects for procurement transparency, but overall he thinks that global efforts are still moving in a positive direction, given the compelling results open contracting is able to demonstrate through better competition and spending. He is encouraged by the UK’s 2023 Procurement Act, which came into force in February 2025 and which should better track competition, encourage small businesses and allow for more awards on best value versus lowest cost.

Hayman and Neumann offered a few rules of thumb: go digital; keep politics and politicians out procurements; use simple, fair rules; maintain a quality civil service and avoid “infantilizing” government by outsourcing everything; continually evaluate “bang for the buck” of contracts; and focus on value and outcomes from contracts, not just on cost; and make an extra effort to engage “unusual suspects” and smaller business to bid. “You have to go to them, don’t expect them to come to you,” said Hayman.

Marc Schleifer

Governance, Democracy and Economic Development Expert