MELLAN DEFINITIONER OCH UPPLEVELSER : Korruption i offentliga upphandlingar ur tjänstepersoners synvinkel

Sammanfattning: For a long time, Sweden, as an administrative nation, has held a high international reputation from various perspectives. One of the primary perspectives has been regarding the transparency and impartiality of Swedish administrations. However, in recent times, the question of whether Sweden is more corrupt than previously believed has become a subject of public debate. Transparency and impartiality have undoubtedly been called into question, making it interesting to study the potential occurrence of corruption within Swedish administrations. This study focuses on public procurement, which is the part of Swedish administrations that generates the most revenue, making it interesting from a corruption perspective. The purpose of this study is to examine how public procurers define corruption and how they view the subject in general. To do this, we use two research questions: How do officials define and interpret the concept of corruption, and how can it be relevant in combating potential corruption risks? Also, how do officials perceive the corruption issue based on the public's and the academic community's views on public procurement? The study is conducted using a qualitative method in the form of interview responses from 4 selected officials from different municipalities. The interview material is analyzed using ideal types to categorize the officials' opinions. The results of this study provide an insight, among other things, into the fact that the interviewed officials have some difficulty defining what constitutes corruption. The outcome of this study indicates certain aspects of the officials' thoughts and opinions, which is a topic in the research field that we have so far found relatively unexplored. Hopefully, this study can contribute to raising awareness of the subject and pave the way for further research.