In the perspective of the internationalization of public contracts, the problem of integrity of public contracts is of utmost importance as it is possible to identify connections between the fight against improper behavior in international transactions and the internal perception of the phenomenon. Public contracts are traditionally the government activity most vulnerable to corruption, due to the large amount of public funds involved and to the numerous chances for parties’ illicit or opportunistic behavior within the awarding and execution. Integrity in public contracts stands for the principle, developed in legal rules and procedures as well as in ethic rules, which ensures proper and correct behavior by all the parties involved with a special focus on the safeguarding of public resources. Until the 1990s corruption used to be thought of as an intrinsic feature of some domestic institutions. Firms involved in international transactions - and in particular in international public contracts - used to take into account the cost of local corruption in their estimate of the project’s total cost. Companies seeking contracts abroad often expected to have to pay a bribe to foreign officials just to stay in the race. Several governments saw no reason to disagree and offered favorable tax treatment for bribery payments which could be written off as expenses; yet in the last two decades the internationalization of the fight against corruption seems to have produced tangible effects both at the national and the international level, raising a new kind of awareness which complements the domestic efforts in coping with corruption. This Chapter aims to explore the potentially fruitful interactions between international conventions and national legal systems as they apply also in the context of public contracts. In fact, the fight against corruption concerns also the sector of public contracts which is unanimously known as plagued by corruption. The extent to which public money is wisely channeled through public procurement is therefore to be considered symptomatic of the commitment by States and by their citizens in their different specific roles (e.g. economic operators, civil servants, public officials, final users) at any level of government in the fight against corruption.
Public Contracts and International Public Policies against Corruption
Gabriella M. Racca;Roberto Cavallo Perin;
2016-01-01
Abstract
In the perspective of the internationalization of public contracts, the problem of integrity of public contracts is of utmost importance as it is possible to identify connections between the fight against improper behavior in international transactions and the internal perception of the phenomenon. Public contracts are traditionally the government activity most vulnerable to corruption, due to the large amount of public funds involved and to the numerous chances for parties’ illicit or opportunistic behavior within the awarding and execution. Integrity in public contracts stands for the principle, developed in legal rules and procedures as well as in ethic rules, which ensures proper and correct behavior by all the parties involved with a special focus on the safeguarding of public resources. Until the 1990s corruption used to be thought of as an intrinsic feature of some domestic institutions. Firms involved in international transactions - and in particular in international public contracts - used to take into account the cost of local corruption in their estimate of the project’s total cost. Companies seeking contracts abroad often expected to have to pay a bribe to foreign officials just to stay in the race. Several governments saw no reason to disagree and offered favorable tax treatment for bribery payments which could be written off as expenses; yet in the last two decades the internationalization of the fight against corruption seems to have produced tangible effects both at the national and the international level, raising a new kind of awareness which complements the domestic efforts in coping with corruption. This Chapter aims to explore the potentially fruitful interactions between international conventions and national legal systems as they apply also in the context of public contracts. In fact, the fight against corruption concerns also the sector of public contracts which is unanimously known as plagued by corruption. The extent to which public money is wisely channeled through public procurement is therefore to be considered symptomatic of the commitment by States and by their citizens in their different specific roles (e.g. economic operators, civil servants, public officials, final users) at any level of government in the fight against corruption.
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