Procurement is a critical government activity, yet very little scholarly attention is devoted to procurement fraud in public policy, public management, or public financial management research. While many publications focus on the stages of the procurement process and appropriate protocols to follow for successful procurements, the opportunities for exploitation of the process have not been as widely studied. Procurement fraud is similarly understudied in the white-collar crime literature, where attention has primarily been placed on corporate crime or political corruption. This book extends criminal justice and white-collar crime scholarship by using these literatures to frame public procurement fraud. Additionally, organizational behavior approaches are applied to public procurement fraud to explain possible motivations for this type of occupational crime. This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to provide insights into the characteristics of individuals who abuse the procurement process for personal gain, and it offers some strategies for detecting and preventing further abuse. Original research is also presented and compares the offender-based and offense-based characteristics of the perpetrators of public procurement fraud with those of street and white-collar criminals. The intention of this book is to elevate the issue of public procurement fraud and to align it with criminal justice and white-collar crime scholarship.
Author(s): Christy D. Smith
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 86
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Tables
1 Introduction
2 Public Procurement Overview
Ensuring a Fair and Legal Process
Local Government Regulation
State Regulation
Federal Regulation
The Process and Its Vulnerabilities
Describing the Process
Identifying the Vulnerabilities in the Process
References
3 Distinguishing Between Street and White-Collar Crime
Street Crime
A Definition
A Description
White-Collar Crime
A Definition
A Description
References
4 Public Procurement Fraud
What Is Public Procurement Fraud?
A Definition
A Description—Characteristics of the Criminal vs. the Crime
A Description—Types of Procurement Fraud
References
5 Applying Organizational Behavior Approaches to Public Procurement Fraud
Pro–organizational
Stewardship Theory
Public Service Motivation
Pro-individual
Principal-Agent Theory
Workplace Deviance
Applying Cressey’s Fraud Triangle to Public Procurement Fraud
References
6 A Study of Public Procurement Fraud
Purpose of the Study
A Brief Review of Street and White-Collar Crime Characteristics
Research Design and Data Collection
Article Selection Process
Recording Data Elements
Results and Discussion
Status/Socio-Economic Class
Gender
Age
Tenure
Other Findings of Note
Most Common Types of Fraud
Elected vs. Appointed/Merit-Based Employees
Level of Government
The Importance of Whistleblowing
Final Remarks About the Study
References
7 Detecting and Preventing Public Procurement Fraud
Current State of Detection
Internal Controls
Audits
Whistleblowing
Suggestions for Improving Detection
Internal Controls
Audits
Whistleblowing
Business Intelligence and Analytics
Prevention
Audits and Employee Training
Professionalism and Certification
Prosecution
References
8 Conclusion and Directions for Future Research
Directions for Future Research
Concluding Remarks
References
Index
