This book examines the issues and challenges raised by the debarment or
disqualification of corrupt suppliers from public contracts. Implementing a
disqualification mechanism in public procurement raises serious practical
and conceptual difficulties, which are not always considered by legislative
provisions on disqualification. Some of the problems that may arise from
the use of disqualifications include determining whether a conviction for
corruption ought to be a pre-requisite to disqualification, bearing in mind
that corruption thrives in secret, resulting in a dearth of convictions.
Another issue is determining how to balance the tension between granting
adequate procedural safeguards to a supplier in disqualification proceedings
and not delaying the procurement process. A further issue is determining
the scope of the disqualification in the sense of whether it applies to
firms, natural persons, subcontractors, subsidiaries or other persons related
to the corrupt firm and whether disqualification will lead to the termination
of existing contracts.
The book compares and contrasts the legal, practical and institutional
approaches to the implementation of the disqualification mechanism in
the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Republic
of South Africa and the World Bank.