IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i9p3698-d1385191.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ghosts in the Machine: How Big Data Analytics Can Be Used to Strengthen Online Public Procurement Accountability

Author

Listed:
  • Mihai-Răzvan Sanda

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Craiova, 200585 Craiova, Romania)

  • Marian-Ilie Siminică

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Craiova, 200585 Craiova, Romania
    Institute of Financial Studies, 020805 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Costin-Daniel Avram

    (Department of Economics, Accounting and International Affairs, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Craiova, 200585 Craiova, Romania)

  • Luminița Popescu

    (Department of Management, Marketing and Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Craiova, 200585 Craiova, Romania)

Abstract

The core of sustainable public procurement lies in its ability to stem uneconomical public expenditures that waste taxpayer money and stifle social trust and development. The external audit of public procurement proves problematic since current research fails to provide sufficient empirical studies aimed at identifying procurement fraud. The development of online portals with embedded e-procurement solutions, along with the big data revolution, open new horizons and allow us to reveal trends otherwise impossible to spot, such as transactions achieved in an exclusive commercial relationship, in which a vendor engages only with a single public entity. By using innovative data acquisition techniques, our research encompasses 2.25 million online direct public procurement procedures conducted in 2023 using the Romanian portal for public procurement, totaling EUR 3.22 billion. By aggregating databases obtained from various public sources, our analysis achieved remarkable granularity, using over 112 million data elements—50 pertaining to each transaction. Research results indicate a unique sub-population of public procurement procedures—those conducted with “ in-house ” vendors totaling 14.28% of all direct public acquisitions and which is significantly differentiated along the entire list of analyzed criteria—financial, geographical, statistical, or risk-wise—illustrating a troubling phenomenon: possible gerrymandering of the online public procurement landscape, which, at least in theory, resembles a perfect market, by cultivating preferential commercial relations, thus affecting the legality, regularity, and economical aspects of public procurement.

Suggested Citation

  • Mihai-Răzvan Sanda & Marian-Ilie Siminică & Costin-Daniel Avram & Luminița Popescu, 2024. "Ghosts in the Machine: How Big Data Analytics Can Be Used to Strengthen Online Public Procurement Accountability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-15, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:9:p:3698-:d:1385191
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/9/3698/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/9/3698/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krieger, Felix & Drews, Paul & Velte, Patrick, 2021. "Explaining the (non-) adoption of advanced data analytics in auditing: A process theory," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    2. Ni Wayan Rustiarini & Sutrisno T. & Nurkholis Nurkholis & Wuryan Andayani, 2019. "Why people commit public procurement fraud? The fraud diamond view," Journal of Public Procurement, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 19(4), pages 345-362, August.
    3. Alles, Michael & Gray, Glen L., 2016. "Incorporating big data in audits: Identifying inhibitors and a research agenda to address those inhibitors," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 44-59.
    4. Aristotelis Mavidis & Dimitris Folinas & Dimitrios Skiadas & Alexandros Xanthopoulos, 2024. "Emerging Technologies Revolutionising Public Procurement: Insights from Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-29, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ruhnke, Klaus, 2023. "Empirical research frameworks in a changing world: The case of audit data analytics," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    2. Vitali, Sonia & Giuliani, Marco, 2024. "Emerging digital technologies and auditing firms: Opportunities and challenges," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. Afsay, Akram & Tahriri, Arash & Rezaee, Zabihollah, 2023. "A meta-analysis of factors affecting acceptance of information technology in auditing," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    4. Wasswa Asaph Senoga, 2023. "The Effect of Accountability, Transparency, And Integrity of Church Leaders on Fraud Prevention in The Management of Church Funds," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(1), pages 1388-1409, January.
    5. Salonee Patel & Manan Shah, 2023. "A Comprehensive Study on Implementing Big Data in the Auditing Industry," Annals of Data Science, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 657-677, June.
    6. Francis Aboagye‐Otchere & Cletus Agyenim‐Boateng & Abdulai Enusah & Theodora Ekua Aryee, 2021. "A Review of Big Data Research in Accounting," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 268-283, October.
    7. Cebi, Selcuk & Karakurt, Necip Fazıl & Kurtulus, Erkan & Tokgoz, Bunyamin, 2024. "Development of a decision support system for client acceptance in independent audit process," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    8. Ahmad H. Juma’h & Yazan Alnsour, 2018. "Using Social Media Analytics: The Effect of President Trump’s Tweets On Companies’ Performance," Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems, Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 100-121, March.
    9. Helmi Hentati & Neila Boulila Taktak, 2023. "Unlocking Technological Capabilities to Boost the Performance of Accounting Firms," Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems, Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 631-656, December.
    10. Federica De Santis, 2018. "Big Data e revisione contabile: uno studio esplorativo nel contesto italiano," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(2), pages 129-154.
    11. Mihai-Răzvan Sanda & Cristina-Petrina Trincu-Drăgușin & Costin-Daniel Avram, 2022. "The Alignment of INTOSAI and Romanian Public External Audit Standards, Guidelines and Institutional Focus to the Data Driven Context," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(2), pages 418-428, Decembrie.
    12. Zhang, Chao & Zhu, Weidong & Dai, Jun & Wu, Yong & Chen, Xulong, 2023. "Ethical impact of artificial intelligence in managerial accounting," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    13. Fábio Albuquerque & Paula Gomes Dos Santos, 2023. "Recent Trends in Accounting and Information System Research: A Literature Review Using Textual Analysis Tools," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-27, April.
    14. Amir Michael & Rob Dixon, 2019. "Audit data analytics of unregulated voluntary disclosures and auditing expectations gap," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 16(4), pages 188-205, December.
    15. Saxton, Gregory D. & Guo, Chao, 2020. "Social media capital: Conceptualizing the nature, acquisition, and expenditure of social media-based organizational resources," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    16. Jackson, Denise & Allen, Christina, 2024. "Enablers, barriers and strategies for adopting new technology in accounting," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    17. Nathanael Betti & Steven DeSimone & Joy Gray, 2022. "The impacts of the use of data analytics and the performance of consulting activities on perceived internal audit quality," Working Papers 2202, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    18. Jean Robert Kala Kamdjoug & Hyacinthe Djanan Sando & Jules Raymond Kala & Arielle Ornela Ndassi Teutio & Sunil Tiwari & Samuel Fosso Wamba, 2024. "Data analytics-based auditing: a case study of fraud detection in the banking context," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 340(2), pages 1161-1188, September.
    19. Anastassia Fedyk & James Hodson & Natalya Khimich & Tatiana Fedyk, 2022. "Is artificial intelligence improving the audit process?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 938-985, September.
    20. Perdana, Arif & Lee, Hwee Hoon & Koh, SzeKee & Arisandi, Desi, 2022. "Data analytics in small and mid-size enterprises: Enablers and inhibitors for business value and firm performance," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:9:p:3698-:d:1385191. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.