Integrity pacts in the EU: Suitability, set up and implementation

The integrity pact, a collaborative tool pioneered by Transparency International, embeds a civil society organisation as an independent monitor in high risk and strategic public contracting projects, enhancing transparency and accountability. This type of civic monitoring plays an instrumental role in protecting public contracts from fraud, corruption, and mismanagement while improving their outcomes.

Between 2015 and 2021, 15 civil society organisations monitored 46 public contracting procedures in the EU. This experience and learnings now help us to understand how to systematically embed this tool into the monitoring of EU-funded contracts. This guidebook will support advocates and implementers in advocating for, setting up, and implementing integrity pacts.

Integrity pacts in the EU: Suitability, set up, and implementation is structured into three parts:

Guide 1: Achieving broader recognition and adoption across the EU lays down a series of recommendations, arguments and opportunities to build, present and communicate the case for wider adoption of integrity pacts. Its goal is to help readers devise paths to secure political buy-in and enhance openness and oversight.

Guide 2: Designing fit-for-purpose integrity pacts discusses the selection of the project and monitoring organisation, rules guiding the collaboration, the involvement of beneficiaries and citizens, and other topics that will impact the implementation of the integrity pact. Its goal is to help readers set up a robust integrity pact capable of fulfilling its purpose.

Guide 3: Ensuring effective monitoring offers recommendations on implementing integrity pacts, covering monitoring activities during the entire public contracting cycle. Its goal is to help readers plan and anticipate the monitoring needs during the different stages of a public contracting project.