On 3 July 2024, the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) organized a webinar with the theme - “Global Procurement: Breaking Barriers to Combat Corruption through Data Exchange.”
The webinar, which was attended by over 120 participants, began with the opening remarks of Prof. Slagjana Taseva, the Dean and Executive Secretary of IACA, and was moderated by Mr. Pawan Kumar Sinha, the Director of Academic Programmes at IACA.
The expert panel included: Prof. Laurence Folliot Lalliot, Professor of Public Law at the University of Paris Nanterre; Prof. Gabriella Racca, Professor of Administrative Law at the Department of Management of the University of Torino; Prof. Isabel da Rosa, Director of Finance, Studies and Strategy in IMPIC (Portuguese Public Procurement Regulator); and Prof. Christopher Yukins, Professor at George Washington University Law School.
In their presentations, the experts discussed the digitalisation of public contracts and data exchange, delved into the European Union's initiatives in supporting public procurement, and briefed the participants on how data quality and exchange could pose challenges which should be addressed. Moreover, they presented the issue of the exclusion of contractors under the EU Directives, as well as the methods to detect cases of corruption in public procurement.
The experts spotlighted the link between anti-corruption efforts and good procurement, as well as discussed ways to enhance transparency using new technologies to connect procurement systems with national databases. They also focused on the issue of data collection, processing, and use.
In this context, Prof. da Rosa stated, “I want to raise your awareness of the incredible increase in terms of data that is publicly available. This is the result of the increase in digitalization that is producing more and more structured data. But with this data, we have a lot of new opportunities to know better about public procurement, to do new things using new tools.”
The experts also provided various recommendations, discussed case studies, and analysed the issue of the role of technology in ensuring the effectiveness of anti-corruption tools, as well as the importance of civil society in mobilizing support for coherent reforms in global procurement.
Prof. Yukins, who also teaches Anti-Corruption Measures in Procurement in IACA's Academic Programmes and Online Open Trainings, mentioned that "civil society plays a very important role in integrating these various voices to bring together coherent reform. That's a very important part of what IACA does, helping civil society bring those voices together".
Recorded webinar on YouTube: