TI Position

• It is crucial for the EU to ensure that its funds – in both shared and centralised management - are procured in a transparent and accountable way as corruption impedes the functioning of the single market and distorts fair competition.
• Effective EC Public Procurement legislation and enforcement guarantee best value for money in public expenditure.
• An effective, fair and proportional EU-wide debarment system – including all modes of management – is needed to make sure that fraudsters are EU-wide excluded from applying for EU funds.
• Both a strong legal framework and institutions related to contract implementation are needed – civil society has an important monitoring role to play.

Issues

• OLAF reports show that public procurement is a high risk area for fraud and irregular use of EU-funds.
• The total public procurement in the EU is estimated at around 15% of the EU’s GDP (i.e. 1.7€ trillion in 2008).
• The EU depends on Member States communicating cases of misconduct (as they are obliged to) in order to make the debarment system work.
• Existing debarment system is not sufficiently maintained and up-dated on EU-wide basis.

Written Contributions/ Consultations

• 29 June 2009: TI submits contribution to European Ombudsman on the Commission's Early Warning System (EWS) Read TI's comments.
• 3 June 2009: TI comments to the consultation launched by the European Commission (DG Trade) on the Draft Interim Report for the EU-Andean Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment. TI highlighted the importance to prevent corruption in the procurement cycle of free trade agreements. Click here to read the comments.
• 29 April 2009: TI comments to the consultation launched by the European Commission (DG Trade) on the Draft Interim Report for the EU-CentralTrade Sustainability Impact Assessment.TI highlighted the importance to prevent corruption in the procurement cycle of free trade agreements. Click here to read the comments.

Projects

• Recently finished project “Excellence and Integrity in Public Procurement” – Training project for public officials working in Member States that are responsible for the procurement of EU funds (see above list of events). The project is co-financed by OLAF and was implemented in four EU Member States via TI’s National Chapters (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia). For more information, contact TI’s Brussels Office: Brussels@transparency.org

Links

• TI on public contracting.