Can E-Procurement Be a Panacea for Upgrading the Competition and Efficiencyin Public Procurement?

The aim of this paper is to analyze whether electronic public procurement (EPP) has a positive and statistically significant impact on the efficiency and economy of the public procurement process as well as on broader participation of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), both of which are recognized as strategic goals of a government. For this purpose, focusing on transparency, efficiency, centralization and bidder participation, we use a database of 65,394 public contracts awarded in the Republic of Slovenia in 2016-2020. Our research shows that there is a strong positive correlation between EPP on the one hand and: (1) higher transparency, expressed by a decreasing share of non-transparent procedures; (2) higher efficiency and economy indicated by the degree of centralization; and (3) broader participation of MSMEs on the other hand. Contrary to expectations, the introduction of the EPP did not increase the intensity of competition and the acceptance of framework agreements as an instrument of centralized and collaborative procurement.