Assessing The Role Of Anti-Corruption Initiatives In Reducing Lobbyist Involvement In E-Procurement: A Case Study Of Mardi

Public procurement is one of the areas that might be exposed to risks of being corrupted and thus need serious attention from the government. In many countries, approximately 20 to25 percent of public funds had been estimated to have been lost through the corruption in public procurement. In Malaysia, the government spends more than RM150 billion a year in procuring goods and services and this is a sign that the riskiness of public procurement being exposed to corruption and the involvement of lobbyist. Malaysian government has introduced Anti-Corruption Initiatives aims to reduce the corruption practice through lobbyist in the public procurement. The involvement of lobbyists in the public procurement contributes to the leakages of public funds since they offer higher price. They resort to bribery in order to get the information related with the procurement from the officers and then they will sell the information to other interested suppliers at a high price. Hence this study aims to explore how the principles of Anti-Corruption Initiatives which consists of legal and regulatory, transparency, accountability and integrity could reduce lobbyist involvement in the e-procurement system (SPE System). This qualitative single case study interviewed five procurement officers and three suppliers of MARDI who had been using the system since 2011. The study found that these principles were relevant and important in reducing the involvement of lobbyist. The combination of the principles in the system was needed to ensure that the lobbyist involvement remained very minimal. In addition, it helps to build and increase public trust and the people's confidence level on the management of public funds by the procurement officers in the public sector. The participants in the study held the belief that the level of corruption in the public procurement activities would be reduced if such principles were present within the electronic procurement system (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V..