ICTlogy

Abstract:

The digital transformation of the public sector has accelerated, fuelled by the ‘shift to digital’ during the pandemic and advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI). States are experimenting with technology, seeking more streamlined and efficient digital government and public services. However, there are significant concerns about risks and harms to individual and collective rights under new modes of digital public governance. Several jurisdictions are attempting to regulate digital technologies, especially AI. However, regulatory effort primarily concentrates on technology use by companies, not government. The regulatory gap underpinning public sector digitalization is growing. Public procurement emerges as a ‘regulatory fix’ to govern public sector digitalization. As it controls the acquisition of digital technologies, procurement is expected to ensure that the public sector is a ‘responsible buyer’ and user. Procurement should ‘regulate by contract’ so that public sector digitalization is trustworthy, ethical, responsible, transparent, fair, safe, cyber secure, etc. Procurement standards and best practices could then be forms of soft regulation to shape digital technology markets. Bringing together insights from political economy, public policy, science and technology studies, and legal scholarship, this book demonstrates that procurement cannot perform this gatekeeping role effectively. Relying on ‘regulation by contract’ creates a false sense of security in governing the transition towards digital public governance. It leaves the public sector exposed to the ‘policy irresistibility’ that surrounds hyped digital technologies. The book demonstrates this through a detailed case study of procurement digitalization as a site of unregulated technological experimentation. The book proposes an alternative regulatory approach.