SceMaps Training: Applying Innovative Methods for State Capture and Corruption Assessment

The problem: State capture is a process, which combines different forms of corruption with the aim of securing long-term privileges to certain stakeholders by exploiting the power of government for private benefit. These “state captors” interfere in drafting, implementing and enforcing the regulations in favour of themselves at the expense of society and business at large. State capture and corruption lead to inefficient public spending, abuse of good governance rules, regulations which are protecting private interests, and lack of control over privileged businesses, among others.

The training: The trainings presents an integrated set of innovative methodologies and their respective research instruments, recently developed and successfully piloted in four European countries under the SceMaps initiative for detecting and monitoring state capture and corruption at institutional and sectoral level. The methodologies complement each other and could be applied either as an integrated tool for comprehensive assessment or as separate instruments addressing particular issues. The training is designed to provide both new knowledge and practical skills, incl. through the use of the SceMaps online interactive tool and a dedicated Methodological training toolkit.

Target groups: The presented methodologies are designed as practical instruments, aiming to empower policy makers, civil society organisations, researchers and investigative journalists for tackling state capture and corruption.

Presentations:

State Capture on Economic Sectors Level assesses state capture symptoms and vulnerabilities at sectoral level and in key regulatory and control institutions. It collects experts’ assessments via an online survey, and the results are used for constructing index-based estimations of state capture pressure that are comparable across sectors and countries.
D-r Alexander Gerganov, Senior research fellow, Center for the Study of Democracy

Clientelism and impact of political influence on the allocation of public funds to local investments: Piloted in Romania and Moldova, this approach uses open public data to monitor the allocation of public money, incl. EU funding, for the development of local infrastructure. It is focused on the mechanism through which the allocations of funds are skewed by the government, how procurement procedures are influenced by companies and politicians and how data can be used to bring transparency.
Septimius Parvu, Expert in good governance and electoral processes, Expert Forum

Big-data analytics for risk assessment of corruption-related behaviour in public procurement uses a set of “red flags” indicators for both buyers (contracting authorities) and suppliers (companies). It is based on the analysis of linked data, integrating public procurement data, company financial and ownership information and media alert system. SceMaps online interactive tool has been developed as a pilot application of red-flags and profiling features in three economic sectors and four countries.
D-r Todor Galev, Director of research, Center for the Study of Democracy

Monitoring Anticorruption Policy Implementation evaluates the implementability, implementation, and coverage of anti-corruption measures and policies on the level of individual public institutions. It is designed to provide concrete policy advice to the institution’s management on improving the anti-corruption setup in the organization.
D-r Alexander Gerganov, Senior research fellow, Center for the Study of Democracy