Skills, Not Just Will: Experimental Evidence From Uganda on Transparency in Public Procurement

ABSTRACT

Governments are usually the largest purchasers of goods and services, creating significant opportunities for corruption. We study whether offering training and technical assistance to procurement officials in 50 Ugandan districts prompted them to publish procurement actions on an online public portal, as legally required. Among districts that received the training and technical assistance program, we randomized whether procurement officials received information in advance about their eligibility to earn a public award for adherence to these transparency standards. We use national administrative data across multiple financial years and 134 district governments to evaluate impacts. The training and technical assistance program increased the number and value of procurement actions uploaded several‐fold, while award eligibility did not have similarly large effects. These results suggest that motivation problems may be overemphasized in the fight against corruption. Building capacity in accounting and transparency could provide effective guardrails against corruption.