Madrid, 20 December 2019- A major pan-European project looking into how to reduce corruption in public procurement, including at the local level, is currently underway in four European countries, and is producing it is first results which can be found on the Tenders.Guru website.

The Tenders Guru project is being run by leading transparency and anti-corruption organisations Access Info Europe (Spain), Civio (Spain), ePaństwo Foundation (Poland), Funky Citizens (Romania), and K-Monitor (Hungary).

The activities currently taking place in the project countries, include:

  • Analysis of corruption risks in local level procurement processes in Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Spain;
  • Training of journalists and civil society on how to monitor public procurement and how to use data to identify problems and how to engage in advocacy to address those problems;
  • Development of an a free, open-source, IT Tool that will detect structural weaknesses and behaviour patterns likely to facilitate corruption, allowing local governments, civil society, and journalists to effectively monitor procurement processes;
  • In-depth research into international standards on public procurement transparency in order to formulate specific recommendations for the EU and national legislators on how to increase transparency and reduce corruption risks
  • Production of a series of micro-learning materials, designed to help public officials, policy makers, journalists and civil society organisations gain a more in-depth understanding of how to identify and combat corruption in public procurement.

During the course of 2020, the findings, lessons learned, research results and policy recommendations will be presented to national governments and at a series of international forums on anti-corruption and open data.

“The ultimate goal of this project is to have a demonstrable impact on increasing transparency of public procurement so as to ensure integrity in the spending of public money at local level,” commented Helen Darbishire, Exeutive Director of Access Info Europe.

Promoting Complementary Anti-Corruption Measures

The Tenders Guru team is also carrying out research into complementary measures that are needed to guard against corruption. These include:

  • Opening of company registers and transparency of beneficial ownership
  • Strengthening of access to information laws
  • Transparency of EU funds
  • Protection of whistleblowers

Tenders Guru is funded by the European Union’s Internal Security Fund- Police.