Element

Description

Title

Data journalism

Category

Transparency and monitoring

Description

Citizens want to have insights in the way that contracting authorities are procuring services, hence spending public money. For example, they want to know who the selected tenderer is, what was the volume and/or the value of the contract, what were the criteria, who is accountable etc. This creates the need, and at the same time opportunities, for data journalists to access public data, in this case about e-procurement processes, interpret and present it in ways that are easy to comprehend by citizens. The e-procurement Ontology will help data journalists, in this context, to access different data sources in a harmonised way, using common semantics, and hence making it easier for them to understand, interpret and combine information, for example about a certain contracting authority publishing tenders in a particular sector.

Actors

Media and Journalists

Final recipients

Citizens

Preconditions

A system or repository which contains information about tenders coming from European sources, such as TED, or national sources, such as red.es, interconnected using the e-procurement ontology. In these portals, public administrations publish mandatory information about calls for tender and contracts between contracting authorities and economic operators. An economic operator was awarded different tenders with different national public administrations.

Flow

1. Clara, who is employed for the HighWay newspaper in Spain, is calculating the total number of tenders and their volume in terms of EUR regarding public transport in the country. In particular, she is assessing the contract value, net of VAT, for tram maintenance at country level by selecting awards that refer to CPV codes 50000000-5 (Repair and maintenance services) and 34600000-3 (Railway and tramway locomotives and rolling stock and associated parts) in order to compare it with other countries including Belgium and France.

2. With access to up-to-date and machine-readable information contained on the TED portal, red.es, publicprocurement.be and boamp.fr, Clara notices that the cost for tram maintenance in Spain is much higher than in Belgium and France. She then finds out that the company MyRails requires more money per kilometre to repair the same type of rails used in Belgium and France. The payment evidence adduced proves that, despite the initial agreement, the public administration in Spain is paying more than other countries.

3. Clara publishes the newspaper article highlighting her findings and explaining how she reached those conclusions by cross-referencing data from TED.

4. Thanks to the article, citizens become aware of the spending on tram maintenance between countries.

Comments