"CMCH expenditure and procurement: Are administrative rules for efficiency a missed harmony?". Paper accepted and presented at at SIDE ISLE International Conference, Roma, on December 15-16, 2017

Previous research on the performance of public procurements tended to portray principles and procedures leading to higher competition and transparency. Nevertheless, demonstrating the efficiency of procurement in delivering “value for money” has remained a challenge, considering the difficulties in establishing reliable cost estimates, benefits, data intractability (particularly at the operational stage), and lack of comparative empirical studies across all modes of procurement. This paper contributes to the debate by exploring publicly funded Italian expenditure for the conservation and management of the cultural and heritage (CMCH) sector, in recognition of its diverse nature and distinct characteristics. The results of our empirical investigation question the efficiency of the public buyers’ choices. Indeed, we show that considering the high number of direct contracting procedures, the awarding procedures they choose do not depend entirely on the projects’ complexity. Open procedures are largely favored to award costly contracts, while the theoretical “expressions of Interest” (EOI) represent a key indicator of competition. Moreover, negotiated procedures are assumed to be more efficient as flexibility increases, and thus less prone to ex-post renegotiations and new completion contracts.