The Unprotected Reporter: The Problem of Protection When Challenging Unfair Requirements in Public Procurement

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Abstract

Challenging restrictive requirements in tender documentation is the earliest point at which an irregularity in public procurement becomes visible. The person who raises the challenge is almost always an external market participant, typically a supplier excluded by the requirement itself. Whistleblower protection regimes, by contrast, define their subject through an employment or other internal relationship with the wrongdoer. This study introduces the category of the external reporter and shows that this figure falls outside both regimes: the review channel receives the signal but protects only the legality of the procedure, while the protection regime protects the reporter but is closed to anyone outside the work-related context. The gap originates in the United Nations Convention against Corruption, where procurement review (Article 9) and the protection of reporting persons (Article 33) stand apart, the first mandatory and the second merely invited.

Applying a single analytical matrix across three groups of jurisdictions, with the United States as a counterpoint, the study finds that the gap reproduces itself under opposite institutional conditions: in the European Union despite the maturity of both regimes, in Latin America despite standing as broad as the Brazilian right of any person to challenge tender documentation, and in the post-Soviet states despite tens of thousands of complaints a year. Different mechanisms drive out the same figure: a barrier of entry cost in Argentina, a barrier of entry status in Russia. Small suppliers bear these costs disproportionately, and their silence leaves no trace in the statistics.

Recommendations address international organisations and national authorities. An annex contains the consolidated matrices.

Recommended citation

Limarau, D. (2026). The Unprotected Reporter: The Problem of Protection When Challenging Unfair Requirements in Public Procurement. Consejo Internacional para la Lucha Contra la Corrupción. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21855670