Abstract
This paper examines the role of enforcement institutions and public procurement efficiency in two transition economies. Based on a survey of suppliers in Kazakhstan and Russia, the analysis reveals significant differences in public procurement efficiency assessments. Kazakhstani suppliers, on average, evaluate public procurement efficiency lower and report a higher number of procurement problems. These differences can be explained by variations in enforcement practices and weak mechanisms for protecting supplier rights in the case of procurers’ non-compliance with obligations in Kazakhstan. Thus, we empirically show that Kazakhstani suppliers encountering such formal procedural violations during the contract execution stage made significantly lower assessments of public procurement efficiency.