Monithon

iMonitor Project Presented at the G20 Anticorruption Working Group: Highlights from Panel Discussion

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Monithon Europe had the privilege of being represented by its president Luigi Reggi at the recent G20 Anticorruption Working Group event “Just and Sustainable Procurement for People and Planet” held in Paris, France. This gathering saw key discussions on the role of public procurement and the monitoring of public spending through open data and digital technologies. These topics are central to the G20’s agenda leading up to the summit in Brazil in November 2024, where global commitments, including the recent resolution on digitization, data, and ICTs in procurement, will be finalized.

The event featured prominent panelists such as Sally Guyer and Kristen Robinson from the Open Contracting Partnership, Giuseppe Busia, president of ANAC [here his speech and presentation], and Mr. Henrique de Oliveira Andrade, Chief of Staff of the Secretariat of Internal Control, Office of the Comptroller General, Brazil. Their collective insights underscored the significance of transparency and technological advancements in fighting corruption.

 

G20 (Brasil presidency) Anti-corruption working group meeting

 

The G20, as the primary platform for global economic cooperation, has played a crucial role in leading the global fight against corruption. G20 countries, accounting for 75% of world trade and 80% of global GDP, committed to ensure they have in place “systems of procurement based on transparency, competition and objective criteria in decision-making to prevent corruption” in 2014. They also approved G20 Principles for Promoting Integrity in Public Procurement in 2015 and a G20 Compendium of Good Practices for Promoting Integrity and Transparency in Infrastructure Development in 2019, emphasizing the need for openness and transparency of such procurement. The States parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption also committed, in 2021, to “increasing transparency and accountability in the management of public finances and in government procurement, funding and contracting services to ensure transparency in government actions in the use of public funds and during the whole public procurement cycle” to fully implement article 9 of the Convention and approved a resolution entitled Promoting transparency and integrity in public procurement in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development last December.

 

Monithon introduced its latest initiative, the iMonitor project coordinated by the Government Transparency Institute, as a key example of leveraging technology to combat corruption and fraud in public procurement. The project combines data-driven risk assessments with civic monitoring of public contracts, empowering local communities to evaluate the outcomes of public tenders and report actionable findings to law enforcement agencies. This approach highlights the potential of digital tools to enhance the capabilities of citizens in ensuring accountability and transparency in public spending.

Monithon, created in 2013 as an independent initiative supporting citizens in the participatory assessment of the effectiveness of EU projects, has, since 2023, offered a specific methodology and a tool for gathering input on potential misuse of public funding to anyone. The input from local communities is primarily used to foster collaboration with local authorities responsible for local investments, but it can also be forwarded, if deemed relevant, to national anticorruption authorities.

Citizens can select relevant public tenders to monitor on the OpenTender portal, which gathers open government data on millions of contracts in the EU from different official sources and calculates corruption risk indicators for each tender. In Italy, citizens can also start the selection process by identifying an EU-funded project in their town or neighborhood through the Project Finder map, where projects are georeferenced with high precision based on the address. Once they find an interesting project for their community, they can look for related public tenders through the Unique Project Code, which all Italian public administrations use.

 

 

The panel discussion indeed highlighted the importance of including civic actors in the procurement process, by “giving stakeholders clear channels to turn insights from open data on public procurement into policy changes, better resource allocation, stronger contract negotiation and smarter more efficient delivery of goods, services and infrastructure”. For this to happen, citizens should be able to access sufficient training on technical matters.  The discussion also focused on the crucial availability of high-quality and interoperable data, such as those connecting investment projects, public tenders, business registers, company ownership, and beneficial ownership. The AI application ALICE presented by the Brazilian government seems a very promising tool when based on the right data.

We extend our gratitude to the delegates of the G20 countries for their engaging questions and to the French government team for their excellent organization of the event. The outcomes of this session will be shared with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to support the implementation of CoSP resolution 10/9.

For more information about the iMonitor project, visit the iMonitor website.

Monithon

iMonitor, a civic monitoring network to prevent corruption, is launched: join us!

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December 9th is the International Day against Corruption, an opportunity to raise awareness of the consequences of this social, political, and economic phenomenon which affects all countries and deprives citizens of fundamental rights, slows down economic development, undermines the institutions, and the rule of law.

We take this opportunity to announce Monithon’s participation in the iMonitor project network, which has been active for a few months in 4 European countries (Italy, Spain, Romania, Lithuania).

Combining the analysis of public procurement data and the results of civic monitoring to help improve the efficiency of the fight against corruption: this is the key objective of the project coordinated by the Government Transparency Institute, financed by the Internal Security Fund and supported by the Italian national anticorruption authority (ANAC).

Starting from the Opentender platform, which has made public procurement data and corruption risk indicators available, and using Monithon’s reporting tool for citizens dedicated to monitoring public spending, iMonitor will, on the one hand, try to provide useful information authorities to address corruption and fraud in public procurement, on the other hand, to promote civil society networks for ongoing anti-corruption efforts in the 4 European countries/regions involved.

 

To date, the iMonitor network is finalizing a common monitoring reporting template in Spain, Italy, Lithuania, and Romania, and a methodology to engage civic communities in this delicate activity.

The monitoring activities will begin in 2024, and will involve groups of interested citizens with civic monitoring laboratories.

iMonitor brings together Monithon, Oficina Antifrau de Catalunya (Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia), Transparency International Lithuanian Chapter , Romanian Academic Society, National Integrity Agency / Agenția Națională de Integritate (Romania), Collegi de Professionals de la Ciència Política i de la Sociologia de Catalunya (COLPIS, Spain).

 

If want to participate, shoot us a message at info@monithon.eu!

Monithon

Let’s learn how to monitor the EU funding for the environment!

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We are happy to invite you to two free online training events (in Italian) on the civic monitoring of EU funding for the environment in Italy on April 16 and May 21. On the second day, we will launch a national civic monitoring network. Here you can find the program and all the info to participate.

If you are interested in participating or collaborating with us, please send us an email at retemonitoraggiocivico@gmail.com!

Two online events, free and open to all, are scheduled for next Friday 16 April and Friday 21 May, from 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm, organized in collaboration with the Sbilanciamoci! Campaign, with the laboratory “European cohesion policies and territorial communication strategies” (Prof. Alba Garavet), and the course “Communicating Europe: institutions, representations and public opinion” of the University of Turin (Prof. Marinella Belluati). What are the environmental projects financed in Italy by the European Union through the resources of the European Cohesion Policy? Where exactly are they located, and what kind of interventions do they envisage? How much are the resources allocated to them, and who manages them in our country? How to monitor their progress and evaluate the real impact on beneficiaries and territories? These are the questions to be answered in the two initiatives in April and May, thanks to the participation of experts, activists from Italian environmental organizations and networks, students, institutional representatives.

This training is co-funded by the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission thanks to the project “A national network for civic monitoring of European funds for the environment and sustainable development”, created by the NGOs Lunaria and Monithon. The project is supported by the Sbilanciamoci! Campaign, the OpenCoesione initiative of the Department for Cohesion of the Presidency of the Council and the Department of Culture, Politics and Society of the University of Turin, the Metropolitan City of Turin, and the Europe Direct Turin.

Download the complete program of the two events on April 16th and May 21st (in Italian)

In particular, the afternoon of Friday 16 April will open with a session aimed at providing – thanks to the interventions of Anguel Beremliysky (Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission) and Francesca De Lucia (expert in environmental issues) – an overview on the EU Cohesion Policy and European funds for the environment in Italy. Following, the best practices of civic monitoring animated by Monithon, by the laboratory on European cohesion policies of the University of Turin and by the University of Turin will be presented with contributions respectively by Luigi Reggi (Monithon), Alba Garavet (Europe Direct Torino), Simona De Luca, and Gianmarco Guazzo from At School of OpenCohesion (ASOC). 

Besides, the Monithon team will offer specific training on the civic monitoring of EU funds for the environment and sustainability, which finance thousands of projects throughout Italy. On this occasion, a new interactive platform will also be illustrated – created in collaboration with Sheldon Studio starting from the open data published by OpenCoesione – to discover and promptly locate the projects financed in one’s territory, and access all the information already available such as the financial dimension, the description, the subjects involved, the implementation schedules and the progress. The objective of the event on April 16 is to launch initial experimentation of environmental civic monitoring by “triggering” the autonomous initiative of the training participants.

The event scheduled for the afternoon of Friday 21 May will open with the presentation of civic monitoring initiatives – their challenges, strengths, and the preliminary results achieved – launched on an experimental basis following the training day of 16 April. The discussants for this session will be Willebrordus Sluijters and Andrea Mancini of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission. During the second session, the foundations will then be laid for the process of setting up a national civic monitoring network of European funds for the environment and sustainable development, with a round table of comparison and extended discussion between various organized subjects of Italian civil society. Among the organizations and participants who confirmed their presence at the round table are: Sergio Andreis (Kyoto Club), Gianluca Catullo (WWF Italy), Sabina De Luca (Forum Inequalities Diversity), Anna Donati (Alliance for Sweet Mobility), Paola Dottor (Transparency International Italia), Emanuele Genovese (Fridays for Future Italia), Anna Lisa Mandorino (Cittadinanzattiva), Maria Maranò (Legambiente), Luigi Reggi (Monithon), Sara Vegni (ActionAid), Duccio Zola (Lunaria).