Determinants of Public Procurement Corruption in Gedeo Zone

Corruption is an unethical conduct either in public or private which basically constitutes an abuse of public office for private gain. It is a malaise that has contempt for due process and the rule of law, distorts the allocation of resources, undermines competition in the market place and has a devastating effect on investment, growth and development. In the light of the above, the purpose of this research is to assess the determinants of corruption in public procurement in Gideo Zone SNNPRS. To this end, the study adopts a mixed methods research approach by combining documentary analysis and in-depth interviews. The findings of the study revealed that economic, political, social and organizational factors are the determinants of public procurement corruption in Gedeo Zone. The study has confirmed that all the four major variables don’t account for all of the variations in procurement corruption which either suggests the existence of other determinants of the phenomenon or the challenges emanating from the measurement challenge. It is recommended that future studies should be conducted to explore some of these other determinants of procurement corruption. Keywords: Corruption, Public Procurement, Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-5-02 Publication date:March 31st 202