The purpose of this paper is to frame the causal relationships between corruption in public procurement and performance of local governments.
An outcome-based dynamic performance management approach is adopted to explore a representative case study of a small Italian municipality. The model is based on three sources: qualitative primary data generated by face-to-face convergent interviews; secondary data retrieved from documents describing legal cases linked to procurement and open-access repositories; and an extensive literature review.
Emphasizing the role of community civic morality systemically may help to understand some counterintuitive results in the past research and support decision-makers and policymakers in setting effective strategies to curb the associated negative implications.
A dynamic approach of performance management aimed at framing corruption in public procurement may guide policymakers and decision-makers in keeping their “cognitive radar” constantly active, in a way to detect emerging corruptive phenomena that could be otherwise ignored by normal diagnostical approaches. It may also help to promote organizational ethical learning and improve community outcomes.
This research provides a causal and systemic framework of relationships involving local government performance and wrongdoings in public procurement, by including performance risk indicators linked to structural and individualistic causes of corruption.
