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Public procurement for journalists

Public procurement is complicated but is not impossible. Its rules are some of the most complex in each country and the details are almost never published and ready to work with. Data are concealed often in complex documents or they are unclean or riddled with errors. We present a series of videos which will help you understand public procurement in a wide context.

Health crisis leads to broader public procurement distribution in Hungary, Poland and Spain

Public authorities have redirected their public procurement to respond to the health crisis. The European directive on public procurement allows member states to streamline procurement procedures in emergencies. Yet despite this flexibility, the concentration of bids per successful tenderer has decreased during the pandemic.

Transparency delayed: Officials published at least half of 2020's emergency contracts late

In situations like this pandemic, public entities can issue emergency contracts without opening a file, even orally. But they do have to comply with transparency rules afterward and publish the details within 15 days. In 2020, it took an average of 43 days. And some of them are not even published yet.

From 25 cents to 8 euros a mask, the price war that paid millions to middlemen

The Spanish Ministry of Health paid more than six euros for each swab for PCR tests. The autonomous communities and municipalities didn't escape the price spikes either. In one case, they paid more than 100 euros for a 5-litre jug of hand gel.

Four companies won one in ten euros from 2020 Spanish emergency contracts

This procedure was used - with no bids and little monitoring or transparency - in 16,589 contracts totaling 6.445 billion euros. The vast majority went to the purchase of supplies such as masks, but officials snuck in public television concessions, swimming pool operations, Tasers and even camels for a Three Kings parade.

Red Flags: what they are and how to use them

When working with a huge procurement dataset, containing tens of thousands of contracts, looking at the fine print of each of them is not an option. But you can use red flags to surface those tenders with suspicious details, and then study those in further detail. A red flag doesn't mean a contract is corrupt or illegal, just a hint that a closer look may reveal irregularities. And the more red flags, the stronger the suspicion, start there.

Why Public Procurement

Understanding public procurement is complicated, but not impossible. Rules regulating it are probably among the most complex in each country. Critical information is often not published and, when it is, the formats and structure make it hard to work with. Let's be honest: working with government procurement is much more difficult than taking a statement from a politician and putting it in a headline. But, despite that, or maybe precisely because of it, it’s one of the most useful skills for a journalist. Trust us.

Company Ownership Transparency: essential datasets to help fight corruption in procurement

This document addresses the current state of openness in procurement and company ownership data in the EU, and explains how the lack of transparency created an environment that allowed corruption to thrive during the pandemic. It then makes recommendations on implementation of transparency obligations, and on how to combine them effectively with procurement systems to allow for proper due diligence of suppliers to fight corruption.

Call to protect EU’s Number One Anti-Corruption Instrument: Open Company Registers!

Members of the Tenders Guru project join other organisations and investigative journalists in calling on the European Commission and national governments to act to ensure that company registers, including ownership and corporate structure data, are freely accessible and published in open data format.

Best Practice Below Threshold Data in Poland

In Poland, there is no legal obligation to publish procedures below the threshold, and most public bodies choose not to do so. However, the Municipality of Łódź has prepared and published detailed regulations on how to proceed with procurement that is under €30,000

Municipal Checklist

Check our new guide highlighting the most important elements to be considered at different stages of the procurement cycle.

Ten Recommendations on Transparency in Covid-19 Emergency Procurement

Leading transparency and anti-corruption organisations from across Europe have today released a set of ten recommendations on how governments can ensure transparency of emergency procurement carried out during the coronavirus pandemic.

The invasion of the €14,999.99 contracts

Almost 10% of minor contracts awarded in Spain for goods and services are for sums of between €14,900 and €14,999.99, the legal limit to award them directly, avoiding public tendering.

Thousands of public contracts in Spain fail to comply with the law to avoid competitive tendering

From January to July 2019, more than 5% of minor contracts - in national, regional and local administrations - published at the Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público (Platform for Public Procurement) failed to comply with Article 118 of the Spanish Public Procurement Law, following the letter of the law.

Guide to the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive

The Guide explains how the Directive is structured and the minimum standards of protection that countries need to include in national law.

Procurement Glossary

Leading transparency and anti-corruption organisations from across Europe have today released the Public Procurement Glossary - a guide on the terminology used in public procurement processes.

Why should I care about public procurement transparency?

Members of the RECORD team explain what this project is about and why it’s important for members of the public to care about transparency of public procurement.