Public managers play a key role in public procurement procedures, as they manage the awarding of contracts and supervise their execution. This paper takes account of regulatory changes that have tightened the eligibility requirements for procurement managers to study how the characteristics of these managers affect the duration of public procurement procedures.
The characteristics of procurement managers account for a significant share of the variation in the effectiveness of public procurement management, regardless of the size and complexity of the contracts. Moreover, we find that the 'quality' of managers in terms of experience and education relates positively to the speed of the awarding of public works.
