Category: Publications

Big-data techniques to detect and prevent misconduct in public procurement, in real time. This is the aim of SceMaps, which performs a risk assessment based on a vast volume of data it uses to calculate and analyse 17 red flags – risk indicators – that highlight potential irregularities. EU countries spend 14% of their GDP, or around 2 trillion euros, on public procurement each year. A manual analysis of all tenders is impossible. But an automated, real-time risk assessment of the thousands of public contracts awarded every day in Europe makes it easier to prevent corruption and conflicts of interest in public procurement. The SceMaps analytics platform, designed with this objective in mind, is being piloted in Bulgaria, Italy, Romania and Spain and focuses on three highly sensitive sectors: Construction, Wholesale of Fuels and Wholesale of Pharmaceutical Products.

SceMaps has implemented the MACPI (Monitoring Anti-Corruption Policy Implementation) tool in nine institutions in Bulgaria, Spain, Italy and Romania, which allows institutions to assess the functioning and effectiveness of the anti-corruption measures in place and thus detect their strengths and weaknesses as a way to prevent potential risks. The aim is for institutions to assess and reinforce those areas of greatest vulnerability in a preventive manner.

A total of 2,467 public employees from these four European countries participated in this initiative and were invited to rate, based on their experience, the anti-corruption areas and policies of the bodies they work for. The size of the samples took into account the size of their staff in order to define appropriate participation thresholds to ensure the quality of the statistics. Thus, 1,095 people from the Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy) participated compared to 31 from the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency of the Valencian Community (Spain). However, in the latter case, this figure represents almost the totality of its staff and its study was complemented by the participation of 15 external experts. The other seven collaborating bodies were: the National Revenue Agency (565 employees) and the National Construction Control Directorate (151) in Bulgaria; the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia (498) in Spain; the Chamber of Commerce of Trento (54) in Italy; and, in Romania, the National Integrity Agency (46), the Competition Council (15) and the Municipality of Sinaia (12).

The MACPI results show a good anti-corruption structure in most of the organisations assessed. This is not surprising, as organisations that agree to cooperate in independent external assessments tend to have robust systems of anti-corruption measures with good coverage of potential risks.

State capture is the practice of illegally exploiting governmental powers and the economies of democratic countries for the benefit of a few private individuals. Business state capture pressure is one symptom of such state capture. From public officials to academics and research journalists in the fuels, pharmaceuticals and construction sectors in Bulgaria, Spain, Italy and Romania, some 50% of the experts surveyed by SceMaps have highlighted this pressure. The results indicate potential systemic problems within the three sectors in the four different countries, according to the State Capture Assessment Diagnostics (SCAD) tool, which SceMaps has rolled out in these four countries.

Responses from half the experts surveyed by SceMaps point to the presence of business capture pressure – one symptom of state capture – within the sectors analysed.

Over 250,000 public authorities in the EU spend around €2 trillion per year (14% of EU GDP) through public procurement for services, works and supplies, according to European Commission estimations. In Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, and Spain, SceMaps has analysed the situation of three sectors where public authorities are the major buyers and which have been identified as some of the riskiest in terms of possible misuse and mismanagement of public spending: Construction, Wholesale of Fuels and Wholesale of Pharmaceuticals. The risk assessment conducted by SceMaps, based on big-data analysis, shows that public procurement in Bulgaria and Romania is more prone to suspicious behaviour by both suppliers (companies) and buyers (contracting authorities).

SceMaps makes its assessments by combining ‘red flags’, each of which indicates a risk situation which might be the result of possible corruption or conflict of interests. A single red flag is not evidence of wrongdoing, but an accumulation of these for a particular company, contracting authority, sector or country indicates suspicious behaviour in the procurement processes at both the micro (single entity) and macro (sector or country) level that needs to be closely scrutinised.

Big-data techniques to detect and prevent misconduct in public procurement, in real time. This is the aim of SceMaps, which performs a risk assessment based on a vast volume of data it uses to calculate and analyse 17 red flags – risk indicators – that highlight potential irregularities. EU countries spend 14% of their GDP, or around 2 trillion euros, on public procurement each year. A manual analysis of all tenders is impossible. But an automated, real-time risk assessment of the thousands of public contracts awarded every day in Europe makes it easier to prevent corruption and conflicts of interest in public procurement. The SceMaps analytics platform, designed with this objective in mind, is being piloted in Bulgaria, Italy, Romania and Spain and focuses on three highly sensitive sectors: Construction, Wholesale of Fuels and Wholesale of Pharmaceutical Products.