Revisiting the Promise : A Feasibility Boundary for Digital Procurement Governance

This Chapter builds on the argument that mitigating the allure and policy irresistibility of digital technologies requires reassessing the true potential benefits of digital technologies and, more importantly, the necessary enabling mechanisms, likely roadblocks, and new risks that come with them (which is fully developed at https://ssrn.com/abstract=4216825). Taking a closer functional look at the technologies will allow for a better understanding of the constraints on their likely contribution to improving (digital) procurement governance. Such constraints should not only serve as a counterpoint to the hype that follows superficial or techno optimistic assessments, but also help recentre policy agendas towards establishing proper foundations for digital adaptation in the long term. The Chapter will evidence the importance of data availability and quality across technologies. This will lead to an analysis of the difficulties in generating an enabling big data architecture despite efforts led by eg the European Commission, or the Open Contracting Partnership. Such big data architecture will remain the main constraint on the implementation of digital technologies for a while. Thinking further into the future, the Chapter will highlight the displacement, rather than avoidance or resolution, of governance risks that the adoption of digital technologies can generate (which will then be explored in more detail elsewhere). The Chapter closes with a recapitulation of the feasibility boundary for digital procurement governance