The Limits of Compliance: Ethical Integrity in Uganda’s Public Procurement and Supply Chains
Keywords:
Corruption control, Ethical integrity, Public procurement, Supply chain systems, UgandaAbstract
The persistence of corruption in Uganda’s public procurement and supply chain systems continues to undermine governance effectiveness and weaken development outcomes. This study examines ethical integrity as a normative and institutional mechanism for strengthening corruption control within procurement and supply chain practices. It investigates how ethical values influence operational conduct, with particular attention to moral awareness, accountability, and transparency in shaping institutional behaviour across procurement processes and supply networks. A qualitative research design is adopted, drawing on secondary data from government reports, policy frameworks, and scholarly literature to assess how ethical considerations influence decision-making and oversight within public procurement systems. Findings indicate that ethical integrity plays a central role in promoting fairness, trust, and transparency across procurement and supply chain activities. Where procurement officials and supply chain actors adhere to ethical principles, incidences of favouritism, fraud, and resource mismanagement are reduced. The analysis further shows that compliance-based regulatory frameworks, while necessary, are insufficient in isolation when ethical values are not internalized within institutions and actors. Emphasis is placed on embedding ethical standards into procurement and supply chain governance through leadership commitment, ethical orientation, and strengthened oversight mechanisms. The discussion contributes to governance and supply chain management debates by demonstrating that overreliance on compliance mechanisms limits the effectiveness of corruption control, while ethical integrity provides a deeper foundation for institutional conduct in environments characterized by systemic corruption.
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