In Quebec we had an investigation into widespread corruption in construction ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charbonneau_Commission ) during which the major government witness made the very strong case that thanks to the lowest-bidder-at-lowest-bid-price auction process used by municipalities you either have to be corrupt or you will go out of business. I couldn't help thinking he should have cited Vickrey at the time (unlikely that he would be aware), and the province should have move to second price auctions for dishing out government contracts, but you would have the small challenge of persuading the populous that paying an amount which isn't actually the lowest bid is actually in the long term interest of everyone, especially if the short term beneficiaries have a track record of organised crime.