Innovation laboratory in public procurement

This working group aims to define a better public procurement model: more transparent, focused on accountability to citizens, rather than just bidding companies; and aimed at the prevention of corruption, incorporating methods and technologies for analysis, control and monitoring to detect and avoid irregularities.

goals

We are going to put our hands on the ground and  put ideas into practice as  much as possible, focusing on very specific aspects. It is a multidisciplinary  working group and is aimed at anyone interested in public procurement and / or who has experience in this area.

Functioning

The Public Procurement Innovation Laboratory focuses its objectives on  four working subgroups :

• Group 1. Public administrations, officials and public offices. In search of the perfect recruitment transparency portal. We will analyze the best examples and practices in procurement advertising to define what the perfect public procurement portal would look like. We will have international experts, as well as specialists in contracting from public entities that have already taken steps forward in this area.
• Group 2. Academia, public employees and civil society. How to detect corruption . We will establish a list of red flags, alarm signals that warn of possible irregularities and that allow us to take a step forward in monitoring recruitment.
• Group 3. Developer is and data scientists. Tools to put everything you have learned into practice. We will look for the best technologies and tools to put into practice what we have learned in the previous two points: how to create the best recruitment transparency portal and how to detect red flags. On the basis of reuse and free code, we will try to create a prototype and / or a list of tools capable of applying everything we have learned.
• Group 4. Data journalists. How to take advantage of hiring information. We will learn to work with hiring data and extract the maximum possible juice from it to develop journalistic stories.

Are they tight groups?  Not at all. Although we will hold  four thematic sessions , specific to each group, we will always try to have specialists in other areas.

As a closing, we will meet with international specialists from the four areas to share everything we have learned and draw conclusions.

Calendar

• October 19  - First work table and start-up of the laboratory. Alameda 1 - Chaflán, from 10am to 2pm.
• November 15  - Work session to define the perfect recruitment transparency portal. Open to any interested person, but especially aimed at public administrations, officials, public offices and academia. Auditorium, from 10am to 2pm.
• December 14  - Work session to identify red flags that warn of possible contracting irregularities. Open, but especially aimed at Academia, representatives of regulatory or surveillance bodies and civil society. Auditorium, from 10am to 2pm.
• January 24  - Work session to identify the technical tools that allow us to better put into practice everything we have learned. Especially aimed at Developers and data scientists. Auditorium, from 5pm to 8:30 pm.
• February 21  - Work session to learn how to work with hiring data and extract the most juice possible with journalistic stories. Open, but especially aimed at Data Journalists. Auditorium, from 5pm to 8:30 pm.
• March (day to be determined) - Global meeting of the Laboratory. Presentation of progress and conclusions, with the participation of the most prominent experts in each area.

Group coordination

The Public Procurement Innovation Laboratory working group is limited to the activities of  the  Medialab Prado Data Laboratory . The group is coordinated and energized by the  Civio Foundation .

Civio is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to end the opacity in public affairs, informing citizens and using innovation to freely access the information that matters. Transparency in public procurement is one of its priorities. For this reason, Civio investigates public contracts in depth - irregularities, corruption and details about their operation - and pushes for improvements in the law . His project Who collects the work analyzed for the first time all the public works contracts published in the BOE between 2009 and 2015 (8,058 awards totaling 38,828 million euros).

The Civio team participants in this working group are:

• Eva Belmonte (journalist specialized in public policy analysis, public procurement and data journalism | direction and coordination).
• David Cabo (director of Civio; specialist in data extraction, treatment and analysis | technical coordination).
• Amir Campos (expert in international relations and project management | logistics).
• Javier de Vega (communication specialist | dynamisation).
• Raúl Díaz (web developer, data visualization and interface design specialist | visual design and technical support).
• Miguel Ángel Gavilanes (Journalist expert in access to information from institutions and data processing | support in data processing).

contacto@civio.es | Twitter  | Facebook 

How to take part

Participation is completely open . We propose two ways: in  person (attending regular meetings of the working group) or  remotely  ( We would enable mailing list, channel or other forums Slack complementary collaboration).

To sign up, you just have to fill out the following form. When you sign up, we will subscribe you to our mailing list: it is free and does not imply any commitment. Nor will we share your data with anyone. We will use this list to inform you of the group's activities. 

NOTE: Please also attach your answers to the following questions, such as "other attachments" in the form:

1.- Which of these areas interest you? You can check more than one: 

• Think about the perfect recruitment transparency portal
• Identify red flags to detect corruption
• Choose the most suitable technical tools
• How to take advantage of recruitment data

2.- Are you attached to any organization, public entity, educational or company?

3.- Is there a national or international expert that you would like us to invite to participate in our meetings?