Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T05:56:25.421Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Private Whistleblower: Defining a New Role in the Public Procurement System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lisa Hansson
Lisa Hansson*
Affiliation:
Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Due to EU legislation, public procurement through competitive tendering has been applied in most European countries. One purpose of such procurement is to lower the costs of the procured service and another is for the political level to gain better control over what it is purchasing. However, monitoring problems exist when conducting public procurements; recent studies indicate that actions related to public servant corruption are most common in public procurement processes. Citing cases from Sweden, this article argue that, in the case of public procurement, private firms have assumed a monitoring role towards the public sector similar to that of whistleblowers, and that the public system in fact depends on private firms to detect procurement bypasses committed by civil servants. This article provides an understanding of this monitoring role and discusses its theoretical and practical implications for the public system. I conclude that upholding the public system is not the primary objective of the private whistleblower but a positive side effect. The monitoring role is analyzed in the framework of principal–agent theory and should be seen as complementary to the existing monitoring functions available to public principals.

Keywords

public-privatewhistleblowermonitoringprocurement
Type
Research Article
Information
Business and Politics , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , August 2012 , pp. 1 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2012 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexandersson, Gunnar. 2010. “The Accidental Deregulation. Essays on Reforms in the Swedish Bus and Railway Industries 1979-2009”. Ph.D. diss., Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Andersson, Staffan, Bergh, Andreas, Erlinsson, Gissur and Sjölin, Mats. eds. 2010. Korruption, maktmissbruk och legitimitet. Stockholm: Nordstedt.Google Scholar
Box, Richard C. 1999 “Running government like a business: implications from public administrations theory and research.” American Review of Public Administration 29 (1): 19–43.Google Scholar
Commission of the European Communities. 2009. Infringements proceedings. Available from http://ec.europa.eu/transport/infringements/index_en.htm. 12 April 2009.Google Scholar
Considine, Mark. 2001. Enterprising States. The public Management of Welfare-to-Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, Terry L. 2006. The responsible administrator: an approach to ethics for the administrative role, 5th edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
County Administrative Court of Kalmar. 2006. Case number 694-06.Google Scholar
75 See e.g. Grødeland and Aasland 2011; Hansson 2010, 2011aGoogle Scholar
Crane, Andrew and Matten, Dirk. 2007. Business ethics: managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization, 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Directive 993/38/EEC of 14 June 1993, coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport, and telecommunications sectors.Google Scholar
Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors.Google Scholar
Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts.Google Scholar
Directive 2007/66/EC of the European Parliament of the Council of 11 December 2007 amending Council Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC with regard to improving the effectiveness of review procedures concerning the award of public contracts.Google Scholar
Directorate General of Communication. 2002. Press release, title “Public procurement: Commission requests Germany, Italy and Sweden to rectify breaches of EU law in awarding contracts” IP/02/1581. 30 October 2002.Google Scholar
Ehn, Peter. 1998. “Maktens administratörer. Ledande svenska statstjänstemäns och politikers syn på tjänstemannarollen i ett förändringsperspektiv” Ph.D. diss., Stockholm University, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Evenett, Simon J and Hoekman, Bernad M. 2005. “Government procurement: market access, transparency, and multilateral trade rules.” European Journal of Political Economy 21 (1): 163–183.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. 1970. “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” New York Times Magazine, 13 September.Google Scholar
Företagarna. 2007. ”Små företags överklaganden av offentliga upphandlingar – delrapport.” December 2007.Google Scholar
Galbraith, Jay R. 1977. Organization Design. Reading: Addison-Wesley Google Scholar
Grimes, Marcia. 2008. “Contestation or complicity: Civil society as antidote or accessory to political corruption.” Paper presented at the 2008 Midwest Political Science Association Conference, April, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Grødeland, Åse Berit and Aasland, Aadne. 2011. “Civil Society in Post-Communist Europe: Perceptions and Use of Contacts.” Journal of Civil Society 7 (2): 129–56.Google Scholar
Hansson, Lisa. 2010. “Solving procurement problems in public transport: Examining multi-principal roles in relation to effective control mechanisms.” Research in Transportation Economics 29 (1): 124–132.Google Scholar
Hansson, Lisa. 2011a. “Public Procurement at the Local Government Level. Actor roles, discretion and constraints in the implementation of public transport goals.” Ph.D. diss., Linköping University: Linköping.Google Scholar
Hansson, Lisa. 2011b. ”Negativt entreprenörskap – fallet upphandling.” In Politikern entreprenörskap – kreativ problemlösning och förändring, edited by von Bergmann-Winberg, Marie-Louise and Wihlborg, Elin. Liber: Malmö.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hood, Christopher. 1991. “A Public Management For All Seasons?” Public Administration 69 (1): 3–19.Google Scholar
Hopenhayn, Hugo and Lohmann, Susanne. 1996. “Fire-alarm signals and the political oversight of regulatory agencies.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organisation 12 (1): 196–213.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, Dag Ingvar and Thorsvik, Jan. 1998. Hur moderna organisationer fungerar. Introduktion i organisation och ledarskap. Lund: Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
Jönköping Administrative Court of Appeal. 2006. Case number 2149-06.Google Scholar
Kalmar Länstrafik AB. 2004. Letter from Kalmar Länstrafik AB to NOU. Subject: ”Svar på Europeiska kommissionens förfrågan om offentlig upphandling hos Kalmar Länstrafik AB (KLT)”. 21 December 2004.Google Scholar
Kalmar Länstrafik AB. 2006a. Kalmar Länstrafik board meeting protocol. 23 January 2006.Google Scholar
Kalmar Länstrafik AB. 2006b. Kalmar Länstrafik board meeting protocol. 23 May 2006.Google Scholar
Kalmar Länstrafik AB. 2006c. Kalmar Länstrafik board meeting protocol. 2 June 2006.Google Scholar
Kingston, William. 2002. “A running Repair for the Civil Service.” Political Quarterly 73 (2): 198–207.Google Scholar
Kiewiet, Roderick D and McCubbins, Mathew D. 1991. The logic of delegation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Konkurrensverket. 2007. ”Länsrätternas domar om offentlig upphandling.” Rapport 2007: 2 Google Scholar
Lane, Jan-Erik. 2005. Public administration and public management: The principal–agent perspective. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lundquist, Lennart. 1998. Demokratins väktare. Lund: Studentlitteratur Google Scholar
Lundqvist, Lennart J. 1988. “Privatization: Towards a Concept for Comparative Policy Analysis.” Journal of Public Policy 8 (1): 1–19.Google Scholar
Madras, Dimitri and Triantafyllou, Dimitri. 1997. “Selection criteria and the award procedure in public procurement.” International Advances in Economic Research 3 (1): 91–112.Google Scholar
McCubbins, Mathew D and Schwartz, Thomas. 1984. “Congressional oversight overlooked: police patrols versus fire alarms.” American Journal of Political Science 28 (1): 165–179.Google Scholar
Mesmer-Magnus, Jessica R and Viswesvara, Chockalingam. 2005. “Whistleblowing in Organizations: An Examination of Correlates of Whistleblowing Intentions, Actions and Retaliation.” Journal of Business Ethics 62 (3): 277–297.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, Les. 1993. Public management: from imitation to innovation. In Modern Governance, edited by Kooiman, Jan. London: Sage Google Scholar
Miceli, Marcia P and Near, Janet P. 1992. Blowing the Whistle: the organizational and legal implications for companies. New York: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Montin, Stig. 2007. Moderna kommuner. Liber: Malmö.Google Scholar
Nilsson, Jan-Eric, Bergman, Mats, and Pyddoke, Roger. 2005. Den svåra beställarrollen: Om konkurrensutsättning och upphandling i offentlig sektor. Stockholm: SNS förlag.Google Scholar
Newman, Janet and Clarke, John. 1994. “Going about our business: the managerialization of public service.” In Managing Social Policy, edited by Clarke, John, Cochran, Allan and McLaughing, Eguene. London: Sage Google Scholar
NOU. 1998. ”Effekter av lagen om offentlig upphandling.” Stockholm: Nämnden för offentlig upphandling.Google Scholar
NOU. 1999. ”Kartläggning av fel och brister vid offentlig upphandling.” Rapport 52/99-28. Stockholm: Nämnden för offentlig upphandling.Google Scholar
NOU. 2002. Letter from NOU to the Swedish Ministry of Finance. Subject: ”Europeiska kommissionens motiverade yttrande (SG (2002) D/220887) mot Sverige med anledning av Kalmar Länstrafik upphandling av busstransporttjänster”. 13 November 2002.Google Scholar
Pratchett, Lawrence and Wingfield, Melvin. 1996. ‘The Demise of the Public Service Ethos.” In Local Democracy and Local Government, edited by Pratchett, Lawrence and Wilson, David. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Peters, Guy B. 2001. The politics of bureaucracy, 5th edition. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Permanent Representation of Sweden to the European Union. 2004. Telefax from Sweden's Permanent Representation to the European Union to utrikesdepartementet and Swedish Ministry of Finance. Subject: ”Skrivelse from kommissionen angående offentlig upphandling av busstransporttjänster av Kalmar Länstrafik AB – Klagomål 2001/4424 (Kom:s ref. D/2/JK/mm D (2004) 18378)”. 16 December 2004.Google Scholar
Premfors, Rune, Ehn, Peter, Haldén, Eva and Sundström, Göran. 2003. Demokrati och byråkrati. Lund: Studentlitteratur Google Scholar
Romzek, Barbara S., LeRoux, Kelly, and Blackmar, Jannette M. 2012. “A Preliminary Theory of Informal Accountability among Network Organizational Actors.” Public Administration Review 72 (3): 442–453.Google Scholar
Rubenstein, William B. 2004. “On What a Private Attorney General is - And Why it Matters.” Vanderbilt Law Review 57 (6): 2129–2173.Google Scholar
Sappington, David E M. 1991. “Incentives in principal–agent relationships.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 5 (2): 45–66.Google Scholar
Scott, Richard W. 1995. Institutions and Organizations. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar
SFS 1949: 105 Tryckfrihetsförordning (The Swedish Freedom of the Press Act) Google Scholar
SFS 1982: 80 Lag om anställningsskydd (The Swedish Employment Protection Act)Google Scholar
SFS 1990: 409 Lag om skydd för företagshemligheter (The Swedish Act on the Protection of Trade Secrets)Google Scholar
SFS 1991: 1469 Yttrandefrihetsgrundlag (The Swedish Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression) Google Scholar
SFS 2007: 1091 Lag om offentlig upphandling (The Swedish Public Procurement Act) Google Scholar
SFS 2007: 1092 Lag om upphandling inom områdena vatten, energi, transporter och posttjänster (The Swedish Public Procurement Act concerning water, energy, transport and post services)Google Scholar
Soudry, Ohad. 2006. “A principal–agent analysis of accountability in public procurement.” In Advancing public procurement: Experiences, innovation and knowledge sharing, edited by Thai, Khi V. and Piga, Gustavo. Boca Raton: PrAcademics Press.Google Scholar
SOU. 1999. ”Effektivare offentlig upphandling för fortsatt välfärd, trygghet och tillväxt.” Stockholm: Fakta info direct Google Scholar
Supreme Administrative Court. 2006. Case number 4912-06.Google Scholar
Statistical data from the Swedish Competition Authority (collected December 2008, October 2009 and May 2010)Google Scholar
Svara, James H. 2007. The ethics primer for public administrators in government and non-profit organizations. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett.Google Scholar
Swedish Ministry of Finance. 2002. Letter from the Swedish Ministry of Finance to NOU. Subject: “Motiverat yttrande om tillämpningen av rådets direktiv 93/38EEG om samordning av upphandlingsförfarandet för enheter som har verksamhet inom vatten, - energi, -transporter och telekommunikationssektorna”. 1 November 2002.Google Scholar
Søreide, Tina. 2002. Corruption in public Procurement. Causes, consequences and cures. Report 2002:1. Chr. Michelsen Institute.Google Scholar
Tirole, Jean. 1986. “Hierarchies and Bureaucracies: On the Role of Collusion in Organisation.” Journal of Law, Economics, & Organisation. 2 (2): 181–214.Google Scholar