Simple and Transparent: A Positive 2 Correlation for Virtuous Public 3 Administrations

Thehealthemergencywhichstartedin2020hassetoffanewrequestfor 6 the understanding of public decision-making and underlying information. 7 During the emergency phase, governments encouraged the use of simplified 8 purchasing procedures to ensure the acceleration of public action and to attempt 9 to stem the pandemic. As considerable amounts of public money have been rightly 10 usedduringtheemergencyintheinterestofpublichealth,ourgoalistoinvestigate 11 the level of transparency ensured by the procedures utilized for purchasing goods 12 and services. 13 To this end, we have considered data regarding all the expenses related to the 14 health emergency through public administration calls for tenders between January 15 01,2020,andApril30,2021.Thedataanalyzedsuggestsspeed,simplification,and 16 transparency are not always strictly correlated, and this could be a critical issue in 17 order to guarantee virtuous public policies.