The project provides a tool for EU member state citizens to monitor EU-level public procurements with the help of a risk-analysis system (red flagging) and to report on the tendering and implementation of public procurements in their countries.
Billions of EU funds are spent through public procurement and EU money is the taxpayer’s money. Critics often say that the EU is not effective and it is wasting citizens’ money. We think that the right answer to doubts towards the EU is not less EU, but even more cooperation, and a higher level of involvement. It is true that the EU could be much more efficient, but it is our task to enforce this. If citizens stand up for more participation and less corruption, institutions and authorities will have to act. And all this will make it much more difficult for those who want to weaken this community.
Our goal is to have a sound European civil platform to monitor public procurements and lots of citizens being active partners in preventing and uncovering corruption connected to EU funds. We would like to see journalists who benefit from this service writing stories based on this tool and authorities that take steps to reestablish integrity in the public procurement system. Our goal is to contribute to a more efficient spending of European taxpayers money and to build up a community where citizens feel responsible for the assets of this community.
K-Monitor in cooperation with TI Hungary and the R&D company PetaByte started a red flagging project based on Hungarian procurement data with the support of the European Commission. This is focusing on the elaboration of the methodology and a pilot tool for Hungary that will be launched soon. Since the tool is built on data published in the TED, the next step would be to broaden the scope and implement it in other EU countries and make it as interactive as possible with the help of local NGOs concerned. A joint platform would gather information from the participating countries, but the methodology would also be applicable for groups that already have tools for monitoring public procurements.