Can E-Procurement Be a Panacea for Upgrading the Competition and Efficiency in Public Procurement?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze whether elec­tronic public procurement (EPP) has a positive and statistically significant impact on the efficiency and economy of the public procurement process as well as on broader participation of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), both of which are recognized as strategic goals of a government. For this purpose, focusing on transparency, efficiency, centralization and bidder participation, we use a da­tabase of 65,394 public contracts awarded in the Re­public of Slovenia in 2016-2020. Our research shows that there is a strong positive correlation between EPP on the one hand and: (1) higher transparency, expressed by a decreasing share of non-transpar­ent procedures; (2) higher efficiency and econo­my indicated by the degree of centralization; and (3) broader participation of MSMEs on the other hand. Contrary to expectations, the introduction of the EPP did not increase the intensity of competition and the acceptance of framework agreements as an instrument of centralized and collaborative procure­ment.