Designing political integrity risk indicators: a how-to guide in 11 steps

Poltoratskaya, V., Fazekas, M. and Tóth, B. (2021). Designing political integrity risk indicators: a how-to guide in 11 steps. Transparency International.

The need for the development of specific indicators of corruption – direct or indirect – has grown over the last decade. This can be attributed in part to the increasing recognition of the significant role corruption plays in adverse governance outcomes, such as poor health and environmental degradation. The demand for indicators has also emerged out of frustration with …

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Countering Public Grant Fraud in Spain: Machine Learning for Assessing Risks and Targeting Control Activities

OECD (2021), Countering Public Grant Fraud in Spain: Machine Learning for Assessing Risks and Targeting Control Activities, OECD Public Governance Reviews, Paris: OECD Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1787/0ea22484-en.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, marked by a high volume of accelerated spending, fraud risks have become a pressing concern for governments worldwide. In this environment, public control and audit bodies play a vital role to ensure money is well spent and vulnerabilities are spotted and addressed quickly. In Spain, the General Comptroller …

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Gender in European Public Procurement: Extent, Distribution, and Impacts

Fazekas, M., Kazmina, Y. and Wachs, J. (2020). Gender in European Public Procurement: Extent, Distribution, and Impacts. London: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

A crucially under-documented gender gap is the difference in public procurement spending that flows to companies led or owned by men vs. women. The role of gender in public procurement is of wide interest given that public procurement represents about a third of government spending in OECD countries. As country-level gender data on labour force participation …

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Objective corruption risk indicators using Low and Middle Income Country datasets

Regös, N. & Fazekas, M. (2021). Objective corruption risk indicators using Low and Middle Income Country datasets. GTI-R/2021:01, Budapest, Government Transparency Institute, August 2021.

In 2018 global public procurement spend was $11 trillion, accounting for 12% of global GDP (Djankov et al, 2020). This indicates that to prevent deliberate (fraud, corruption) or unintentional (waste, inefficiency) misuse of public resources through overpriced, delayed or low quality public works, goods or services is essential to avoid significant negative impact on social welfare,

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Policy Brief on State Capture and Defence Procurement in the EU

Czibik, Á., Fazekas, M., Hernandez Sanchez, A. and Wachs, J. (2020). State Capture and Defence Procurement in the EU. GTI-R/2020:03, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.

This paper is part of a broader research project which aims to assess state capture risks in the field of defence procurement using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to overcome research challenges typical of this area, most of all the relatively low level of transparency due to specific procurement regulations.

Public procurement is one …

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Quantifying the Effects of Corruption on the Water and Sanitation Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean

Adam, I., Fazekas, M., Regös, N. and Tóth, B. (2020). Quantifying the Effects of Corruption on the Water and Sanitation Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean. Technocal Note No IDB-TN-02055. Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC.

The importance of transparency and governance as determinants of efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of service undoubtedly occupy a key place among the most relevant lessons learned from the reforms implemented in the Water and Sanitation sector (W&S) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) …

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Modelling Reform Strategies for Open Contracting in Low and Middle Income Countries

Adam, I., Dávid Barrett, E., and Fazekas, M. (2020). Modelling Reform Strategies for Open Contracting in Low and Middle Income Countries. Transparency International, London, UK.

This report aims to evaluate the effectiveness and fit of open contracting reforms to LMIC contexts and to provide recommendations on how and when countries should pursue open contracting reforms. This objective was broken down into the following questions on reform outcomes and reform drivers.

  • How advanced and comprehensive is the legal framework for open

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The Corruption Cost Tracker: Quantifying the costs of corrupt contracting and the savings to be made from reform

Fazekas, M., Dávid-Barrett, E., Abdou, A., Basdevant, O.  (2020). The Corruption Cost Tracker: Quantifying the costs of corrupt contracting and the savings to be made from reform. GTI-R/2020:02, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.

Public procurement constitutes about one-third of government spending or 13 trillion USD per year. It is highly vulnerable to corruption with estimates of losses amounting to 10-20%. Corruption in public procurement can lead to: 1) Overpriced public procurement contracts contributing to larger budget deficits. 2) Unfinished, sub-standard delivery …

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India’s Federal Procurement Data Infrastructure: Observations and Recommendations

Adam, I., Tóth, B., Dávid-Barret, E., Fazekas, M. (2020). India’s Federal Procurement Data Infrastructure: Observations and Recommendations. GTI-R/2020:1, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.

Improving transparency in public procurement, that is publishing more and better-quality data, supports accountability by enabling greater scrutiny over processes and outcomes as well as helping to achieve greater competition and better value for money. In India, according to the Ministry of Finance General Financial Rules (2017), all procuring authorities are responsible and accountable for ensuring transparency, fairness, …

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Why is collecting and analysing data about public procurement so damned difficult? Data scientists explain some common problems

David-Barrett, E. (2019). Why is collecting and analysing data about public procurement so damned difficult? Data scientists explain some common problems. Originally published on the ACE-Global Integrity blog: https://ace.globalintegrity.org/dataexplainer/

Open data is often lauded as a magic pill for anti-corruption: reveal what’s going on, inform the public, and, presto, government will become more accountable. Oh, and big data just means bigger gains, right?

Not quite. We have written elsewhere about the institutional and political challenges that can hinder the transparency …

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