The Madrid City Council was one of the first public institutions in Spain to implement an integrity pact (IP). In early 2017, the council signed a cooperation agreement with Transparency International Spain to monitor the bidding process for the technical support of a citizen telecommunication service. A monitoring commission was formed with representatives of the city of Madrid and TI Spain, who jointly worked to prepare the text of the integrity pact, evaluate its progress, and inform the public. TI Spain was in charge of recruiting and providing support to external experts who would act as independent monitors.

Project implementation was structured in two phases. Phase 1, covering 2017, consisted of monitoring the market consultation and bidding phases. This included training for public employees and public consultations through the portal “Decide Madrid”. Phase 2, covering the whole of 2018, entailed monitoring the first year of contract executions. Four follow-up reports were produced in this phase with policy recommendations for telecommunications, transparency, labour law, and public procurement.

In early 2017, TI Spain signed a cooperation agreement with the autonomous community of Valencia to monitor the construction of a school in the town of Aldaia, a contract worth €164.197. The preparation and implementation of the integrity pact (IP) were similar to the one carried out in Madrid – a monitoring commission with representatives from TI Spain and the contracting authority (CA) met regularly to verify the progress and inform citizens, and TI Spain recruited and formed a group of independent experts in charge of verifying the adequateness of the contracting procedure.

In 2018, TI Spain signed two other cooperation agreements and IPs with the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha to monitor the procurement of technical assistance for the refurbishment of a Hellin education centre in Albacete, and for the construction of Mariana Gymnasium in Cuenca. Like in other IPs, TI Spain coordinated the recruitment of external experts, carried out training for public employees, and, together with the contracting authority, informed the public of the progress made.

According to TI Spain, the implementation of the IPs and cooperation with contracting authorities was rather smooth. The monitors did not identify any irregularities or corruption cases and mostly provided technical recommendations on the procurement process and policy area at hand. Moreover, the IPs had benefits in raising public awareness and fostering trust in the public administration.