Recognizing Good Governance in District Procurement

This project tests whether eligibility for positive recognition improves procurement practices that are vital for good public management. It is a partnership-based randomized experiment, with implementation led by Transparency International Uganda (TIU). The study specifically investigates whether offering district accounting teams positive recognition for meeting established standards about transparency in procurement boosts the level of adherence to those standards. TIU will recruit 50 district accounting teams to be trained and supported to consistently upload procurement actions onto the national procurement portal, something required by law but currently only seldomly completed. While training and support will be offered to all 50 districts in the experimental sample, 25 will be randomly assigned to a positive recognition treatment. Districts in the treatment group will be notified that if they achieve high performance in meeting the transparency standards, they will receive positive, symbolic recognition as part of a national awards ceremony co-hosted by TIU, Makerere University, and the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA). Our main hypothesis is that eligibility for recognition will increase the disclosure of public expenditures and procurement-related documentation on the PPDA’s online Government of Uganda Procurement Portal.