Is the stigma of Corruption attached to Public Procurement real or just a false perception?

Yes, the shame of corruption attached to Public procurement is real. The issue of corruption is much more a Social Issue rather than individual issue of a procurement officer or procurement department. 

Social issue is lack of Governance and Accountability. To put it frankly, when the Head of the State or  most of the law-makers (Member of Parliament) or those high level state functionary officials are corrupt, the lower level procurement implementing  authority are certainly going to be corrupt. 

Look at the several Head of states in Asia and Africa, now in hot news (not mentioning the names). Their (Head of the States) extent of corruption is so high that engulf the whole economy and damage spirit of national development. In such a situation, procurement department officials in govt. sector will be obliged or forced to be corrupt. So, if the governance and accountability is in place and practiced from the highest level of government, I believe the corruption in govt. sector will decrease at a faster rate. 

I think in general most Buyers are honest, but are they bought with T-time on the golf course; wined and dined by the vendor... I think that is each individual's ethic code ...some countries it is customary to give Christmas gifts and nothing is be thought to bribe the buyer...

I also have seen a dishonest Purchasing Manager...therefore it is a fine line between corrupt and  honest.

Absolutely true from my experience. In Public procurement, corruption goes hand in hand, right from the start of issue of tender to the final processing.

Sure it is real; when you have a subcontract from a public/government contract you can recognize the corporation easily. Or look into the contractors/suppliers qualification for public procurement and you will recognize.

Although many countries have a very restricted procurement systems but what you can see that the corporation can easily override these systems.      

Hello Team,

Quite concerning is the fact that the percentage of Americans who feel that their government is corrupt is up dramatically in recent years—in 2009, “only” two out of three of our citizens felt that way. So, the three-quarters number has risen by almost 14% over the past six years alone, this despite all of the intensive – and expensive – efforts to provide more transparency and oversight in procurement and many other areas of the federal government.

And so how are we to feel, as citizens, about just how we poorly we perceive our government in the honesty department? Well, for one thing, we must realize that much of this perception of pervasive corruption comes as the consequence of our freedoms. Gallup acknowledged this in its analysis, stating that while we should be concerned about just how widespread the perception that our government is corrupt and the fact that this number is not improving – and in fact getting worse:

Regards,

Saiyid

Public procurement?

From what my colleagues and friends in sales say, stigma is there for a reason.. unfortunately, that givs a bad name to all procurement.

Let's be frank in this topic.

Any professional messing with purchasing, no matter in private or public sector, has a stigma.

I think it's the only job position, that professionals have to prove every day, they are not elephants. And the reason is quite simple: We deal directly with organization's cash flow

Is it easy for us the corruption? Yes. Is it easy to get caught? It's EASIER. How? Through safeguard keys, implemented internally in the organization by the management. 

Are such safeguard keys in place in the public sector? Usually not! Therefore public service professionals, dealing with purchasing have this stigma.

Above everything, corruption is a matter of culture. With no intention to sound "racist" or to discriminate nationalities, the corruption is clearly a matter of culture and education. 

For example: a high level educated senior professional, normally wouldn't risk his career. On the other hand, an entry or medium level professional in purchasing, would easily be temped by an aggressive supplier.

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Unfortunately, in the absence of proper audit processes,  accountability and lack of governance, it is real! This mostly depends on cultural norms around as well in specific areas.  

yes it is                     .

I believe public procurement is a same concept of procuring services and goods to support the corporate strategy, just like private sector procurement. The only difference is that because you are using tax payer dollars or government grants to support your purchases and also these purchases supports the citizen/social causes, therefore the accountability goes high. Everyone wants a perfect project from public sector and always sees that if the transparency is being maintained or not. You can find the loose process control in private organizations too.

Is the stigma of Corruption attached to Public Procurement real or just a false perception?

Yes I agree,

Procurement member work nature to deal with competitive suppliers, each want to get deal, so there big changes of corruption in this cycle.

but, as said before in other question we can neutralizes negative effects if we follow some standards & processes.