Key directions of research and dilemmas in the sphere of public procurement: theoretical framework

The work summarizes scientific approaches to the phenomenon of public procurement from the positions of various schools and currents, analyzes the key dilemmas that arise in the process of functioning of the public procurement system of various countries of the world. It is well-founded that problems in the study of public procurement arise due to a number of factors: poor definition of the subject of public procurement, as its boundaries are “blurred” between many academic disciplines; the existence of a “gap” between academic works on the socio-economic consequences of public procurement and the framework sequence of their construction and execution procedure; insufficient interest in studying public procurement on the part of regional and local authorities. The analysis of public procurement research was carried out in several areas: 1) procurement selection methods; 2) attributes of goods and services; 3) participants’ experience; 4) decentralization of purchases; 5) accountability and transparency; 6) efficiency; 7) evaluation of procurement policy. The key dilemmas in the public procurement system are analyzed, among which the following are highlighted: 1) the accountability / responsibility dilemma: developing flexible procurement systems while maintaining accountability and control; 2) the fraud / red tape dilemma: limit the opportunity for fraud / mismanagement while reducing operational constraints; 3) the principle / agent dilemma: identifying “best value” in the presence of competing goals and common agency; 4) short-term / long-term cost dilemma: short-term economic efficiency vs. long-term monitoring costs; 5) the cost of empowerment dilemma: responsiveness to “end user” through decentralization while increasing training and evaluation costs. In the long term, reforms aimed at improving procedures and increasing the adaptive potential of the public procurement system are critically important