The Integrity Pacts team. Photo by Alice Chambers

Integrity Pacts

Improving trust and transparency in public procurement

Status
ongoing
Start date
October 2016
Website
Main project page
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What is the problem

5 billion euros of public money is at risk of corruption each year in Europe. The EU spends billions on projects designed to help development across Europe. Structural and investment funds help build everything from roads, to schools, housing, water and power supply and other community improvement. But with such vast expenditures, opportunities for public money to be lost through fraud, corruption and mismanagement are rife. That is why it is vital to make the whole process around procurement transparent, open and accountable.

What are we doing?

Integrity Pacts are an agreement between public authorities, companies bidding for a contract and civil society around public works. Through transparency and monitoring Integrity Pacts improve trust and accountability in public procurement. It promotes good governance and can also encourage institutional changes, such as the increased use of e-procurement systems and improvements of regulatory environments. This large-scale pilot project is across 18 projects in 11 EU countries involving 15 partners to ensure that EU Structural and Investment Funds are provided with safeguards against fraud and corruption. The project is coordinated by Transparency International in Berlin. See the project website here.

 

Who’s involved?

The Transparency International Secretariat coordinates the project, with the financial support of the EU’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG Regio).

In total, 15 national partners are monitoring 18 public contracts across 11 EU member countries.

 

Priorities

Recent News

Resources

Understanding Integrity Pacts

A guide to understanding Integrity Pacts, for civil society, contracting authorities and business. Together we can end corruption in public procurement.

Can EU funds promote the rule of law in Europe?

European Semester Policy Position

After the discontinuation of the EU Anti-Corruption Report, the European Semester process is supposed to act as the main vehicle for delivering recommendations to EU Member States on anti-corruption reforms. The European Semester process is not, as it stands, an adequate substitute for that report, much less the EU anti-corruption strategy that the report was intended to inform. It is clear that the Semester process can be improved with a view to delivering progress on anti-corruption reforms. This policy position outlines recommendations on how the European Semester process can deliver better anti-corruption results through factors such as more thorough risk assessments, more inclusive consultations and more systematic tracking of progress in member states.

Supporters

DG Regio