Period of implementation: February 2019 – February 2021
Whistleblower protection and open data are unanimously recognized as key measures to deter and detect corruption in public procurement and, also, crucial for encouraging the reporting of misconducts and frauds.
It is common knowledge that corruption produces direct and indirect costs: not only loss of public funds as a result of misallocations, higher expenses and lower quality of goods, services and works, but also the distortion of competition and loss of trust of the citizens towards the government. Integrity and transparency in the field of government procurement are a priority for the European Union. Throughout the years, the EU has been making several efforts to ensure data freely available for use and re-use, as clean and accountable public procurement are strategic at EU level.
The project ”WOODIe – Whistleblowing Open Data Impact. An Implementation and Impact Assessment” aims to assess the current implementation and impact of these measures (whistleblower protection and open data) in seven Member States, in order to develop an ICT tool for the public administrations. This project focuses on whistleblowing legislation and open-data policy in public procurement.
On the basis of the previously mentioned legislation and policy in the seven partner countries, the main activities of the project are:
i) Assessing the implementation of the two measures, by identifying how they are applied and how they function, their strengths and shortcomings;
ii) Assessing the impact of these measures, by highlighting if, how and how much they contribute to enhancing transparency and integrity in public procurement;
iii) Developing an assessment model, based on the result of the two previous activities;
iv) Developing an ICT tool, which allows the public administration to assess their policy on whistleblowing and open data.
The beneficiaries of the results of this project are the public administrations, which could apply the ICT tool to self-evaluate their policies. Other long-term beneficiaries are the citizens, since they will benefit from a more accountable public administration and be involved in contributing to this accountability, through an increased awareness of open data and transparency in public administration.
Moreover, the project is implemented in partnership with: Università degli Studi di Torino (Italy); Amapola – Progetti Per La Sicurezza Delle Persone E Delle Comunita Associazione (Italy); Université d’Angers (France); Vienna Centre For Societal Security – Vicesse, Wiener Zentrum Fur Sozialwissenschaftliche Sicherheitsforschung (Austria); Univerza V Mariboru (Slovenia).
This project is financed by the European Commission – Directorate-General Migration and Home Affairs.
