L’impatto di corruzione e mafia sugli appalti pubblici: un'esplorazione empirica

[Autom. eng. transl.] In the current socio-economic context, public administration and institutions must ensure an efficient and transparent use of public finances (Bank of Italy, 2015). In Italy, management inefficiency leads to a very high waste of resources, also fueled by corruption and the presence of mafia-type criminal organizations (ANAC, 2017a). Despite the lack of accurate estimates (ANAC, 2016), the consequences reflect negatively on the free participation in public tenders, on the quality of products and services and on the sustainability of public spending (Lisciandra and Millemaci, 2017; Hessami, 2014). Warning signs of inefficiency in the management of public resources can be detected by identifying any anomalies and / or irregularities in the awarding of a contract (Transparency International, 2013). From this point of view, this chapter analyzes two circumstances often considered signs of anomalies in the procurement sector: the presentation of a single offer and the reduction in the award. In particular, the study seeks to estimate how the presence of organized crime and the level of corruption in Italy influence the likelihood of a contract to receive a single offer and the extent of the decline. The results show that in areas characterized by high levels of corruption and the presence of mafia, public contracts are not awarded in a condition of lack of competition (single bidder). Moreover, in contexts characterized by high levels of corruption, contracts tend to be awarded with greater discount, while this effect cannot be observed in areas dominated by the presence of organized crime groups. These results, although the result of an initial exploratory analysis, indicate that the impact of corruption and organized crime in tenders may diverge from what is frequently hypothesized. This chapter is organized into five sections. The first section summarizes the literature on the subject. The second presents the data and the methodology. The third and fourth sections describe and discuss the results while the last part of the paper proposes new research horizons.