Public procurement data now available on EU Open Data Portal
(From ec.europa.eu)
Data on public procurement conducted according to EU-rules has been made available on the EU Open Data Portal. This data, which shows how over €400 billion in EU citizens' money is being spent every year, is provided in a format accessible to NGOs, academics, companies and journalists.
It includes information on who is buying what from whom, for how much, and which procedure and award criteria were used. Analysing the data will support transparency in public spending, as well as help companies make better business decisions when applying for government contracts.
An example of how similar data is used at the national level is zIndex in the Czech Republic, a tool for benchmarking public institutions’ public procurement. This NGO ranks the performance of ministries and municipalities and highlights indicators potentially refelecting bad practice such as low competition, insufficient transparency, or contracts repeatedly awarded to the same companies. Public bodies can explain their shortcomings to constituents on the profiles they have on the NGO’s website, helping start discussion on good procurement practice. The data newly shared on the EU Open Data Portal will allow for the creation of such projects across the EU.
In the coming years, open data covering all EU public procurement should be gathered, published, and enriched by citizens through social media within the Digital Whistleblower project financed by Horizon 2020. Additional data on public procurement is also already available in an IT-friendly format from the Publications Office of the EU.