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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the development of government procurement systems in Ukraine and the Republic of Georgia since the fall of the Soviet Union through the reform efforts of the 2010s. While Ukraine and Georgia have made impressive strides toward becoming models of openness, transparency, and competition for government procurement in the developing world, some challenges remain. Reform efforts are largely driven by internal desires to shed their respective histories of corruption and the vestiges of the Soviet system, though efforts to integrate into the European Union's single market have also facilitated positive development. The crowning achievements of procurement reform in post-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine thus far have been their 2010 domestic Public Procurement Laws, which established advanced tendering systems and model electronic procurement platforms. However, the practical application of numerous exemptions to the tendering rules, and important gaps in the legislation, creates significant risk of abuse and corruption. Additionally, frozen regional conflicts and lingering corruption issues impede further internal development and efforts toward greater international integration, especially with respect to the European I nion.
I. INTRODUCTION
Ukraine and the Republic of Georgia present valuable insights and contrasts regarding efforts toward procurement reform following their shared Soviet past.2 Since the fall of the Soviet Union, both countries have followed separate but parallel paths in their efforts to overcome significant legacies of corruption' and gain greater assimilation into their respective regional and global international communities.4 One of many such avenues of political and economic reform has been the development of modern, robust, and effective public procurement systems in both countries.5 While both countries have struggled to shake off deeply ingrained legacies of corruption, they each have followed similar paths marked by both internal and external drivers of reform.
The external pressures exerted by a move toward greater integration into the European Union (EU) have complemented internal efforts seeking to address corruption and improve integrity and transparency. As Georgia and Ukraine updated their domestic procurement laws to conform with ELT and international requirements, they simultaneously drove internal shifts toward greater domestic support for reform.6 Though security concerns and overt conflicts with Russia and Russian-backed separatists ultimately slowed full ELT integration in the short term, there has nonetheless been significant progress made toward more effective and transparent...