The impact of anti-corruption strategies on corruption free performance in public construction projects

Despite extensive efforts, corruption in public procurement has reached epidemic proportions and has become one of the major challenges for management. Because corrupt practices mostly occur under wraps, the task of combating corruption becomes even more difficult. In the course of a review of the extant literature on the theme a number of independent constructs with the potential to develop anti-corruption strategies have been identified. A research model was developed on the basis of the hypothesis that anti-corruption strategies lead to corruption free performance in public construction projects. A questionnaire survey was administered and 105 responses were collected. ‘Anti-corruption strategies’ was defined as a second order construct composed of four latent constructs: leadership, rules and regulations, training and fear of punishment. The structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was used to test the hypothesized positive inter-relations between anti-corruption strategies and corruption free performance. The significance of the role of management leadership, rules and regulations, training, as well as fear of punishment is highlighted to help policy makers and construction institutions in understanding the role of various anti-corruption strategies in public construction projects so that they may contribute to this important endeavour in achieving the goal of promoting economy, efficiency, quality, fairness and transparency.