Corruption and the Challenge to Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP): A Perspective on Africa

This paper examines the relationship between corruption and Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) in Africa. Specifically, the paper makes two contributions to the literature. First, it argues that at a macro level, systemic corruption in African countries depletes the already small pool of funds available for public spending, which limits these countries’ ability to pursue SPP outcomes, thus negatively impacting sustainable development. Second, the article draws attention to the need for more specific anti-corruption controls at the micro or institutional levels to address the practice of subverting SPP objectives by corrupt public officials by offering a number of micro-level anti-corruption measures to address the challenge posed by corruption to procurement, including to SPP.