TI Position

• It is crucial for the EU to ensure that its funds – in both shared and centralised management - are procured in a transparent and accountable way as corruption impedes the functioning of the single market and distorts fair competition.
• Effective EC Public Procurement legislation and enforcement guarantee best value for money in public expenditure.
• An effective, fair and proportional EU-wide debarment system – including all modes of management – is needed to make sure that fraudsters are EU-wide excluded from applying for EU funds.
• Both a strong legal framework and institutions related to contract implementation are needed – civil society has an important monitoring role to play.

Issues

• OLAF reports show that public procurement is a high risk area for fraud and irregular use of EU-funds.
• The total public procurement in the EU is estimated at around 15% of the EU’s GDP (i.e. 1.7€ trillion in 2008).
• The EU depends on Member States communicating cases of misconduct (as they are obliged to) in order to make the debarment system work.
• Existing debarment system is not sufficiently maintained and up-dated on EU-wide basis.

Written Contributions/ Consultations

• 24 June 2011 - Transparency International's contribution to the European Commission's public consultation on modernising public procurement policy in Europe is available here. It has been widely documented that procurement, due to its scale and nature, is a field highly susceptible to corruption and bribery. Public procurement accounts for around 16% of the Union’s GDP, and modernisation efforts of procurement policy will threrefore have a significant economic impact Union-wide.
• 31 January 2011 - Transparency International's contribution to the public consultation of the European Commission on E-Procurement is available here. E-Procurement has the potential to reduce opportunities for corruption and increase transparency.
• 29 June 2009 - TI submits contribution to European Ombudsman on the Commission's Early Warning System (EWS) Read TI's comments.
• 3 June 2009 - TI comments to the consultation launched by the European Commission (DG Trade) on the Draft Interim Report for the EU-Andean Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment. TI highlighted the importance to prevent corruption in the procurement cycle of free trade agreements. Click here to read the comments.
• 29 April 2009 - TI comments to the consultation launched by the European Commission (DG Trade) on the Draft Interim Report for the EU-CentralTrade Sustainability Impact Assessment.TI highlighted the importance to prevent corruption in the procurement cycle of free trade agreements. Click here to read the comments.

Projects

• “Excellence and Integrity in Public Procurement” – Training project for public officials working in EU Member States that are responsible for the procurement of EU funds. The project is being implemented in nine EU Member States via TI’s National Chapters (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy. Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia). In total, 16 trainings will be organised. The Brussels Office organised a preparatory workshop for the National Chapters on the 13th and 14th of January, 2010.

  This project has been co-funded by the European Commission (OLAF) under the Hercule II Programme 2007-2013 : A Community action programme to promote activities in the field of the protection of the Community's financial interests (for more information see http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/programmes/index_en.html)

Links

• TI on public contracting.