Enhancing the Efficiency of Public Procurement Management: Contemporary Challenges and Strategic Solutions

Abstract Public procurement constitutes a strategic lever for achieving effective governance, economic resilience, and citizen trust, particularly in developing and transitional economies. Despite recent modernization initiatives, many systems remain constrained by bureaucratic inertia, fragmented regulatory frameworks, weak institutional capacities, and resistance to digital transformation. This article critically examines the efficiency challenges of Armenia’s public procurement system and proposes a theoretically informed and empirically grounded Strategic Procurement Enhancement Model (SPEM) to address them. The research adopts a mixed-methods approach, integrating stakeholder interviews, document analysis, and cross-country comparative benchmarking, and is grounded in theories of institutional economics, digital governance, and public value creation. The analysis is structured through a multi-level framework encompassing procedural, organizational, and policy layers. Key findings reveal that inefficiencies persist across planning, contract management, and stakeholder engagement phases, exacerbated by underinvestment in human capital and a lack of strategic coherence. The proposed SPEM model comprises five interlinked components: process re-engineering, capacity development, digital governance tools, regulatory coherence, and participatory stakeholder engagement. Unlike traditional procurement reform studies, this model integrates context-specific diagnostics with generalizable strategies, enabling adaptation to other transition economies. The article contributes to procurement scholarship by bridging theoretical abstraction and practical applicability. It also responds to the growing demand for resilient, transparent, and performance-driven public procurement systems. The recommendations not only serve Armenia’s reform trajectory but offer valuable insights for similarly structured economies seeking to align procurement with sustainable development and governance modernization. JEL: H57,H83, L38, O38, D73