Developing countries must consider the repercussions of the way in which power is distributed and exercised along the public procurement pipeline. For many reasons, corruption is minimized when transparency of the procurement system is maximized, yet when decisions are not made locally, local beneficiaries have difficulty understanding how and why the actual procurement decisions were reached. Thus, these countries must weigh the efficiencies that can come from a centralized national procurement system against the loss of accountability and legitimacy that may result from opaque decision-making structures at the local level.