- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2023
Strengthening the Strategic Approach to Public Integrity in Belgium, including the integrity of public procurement processes and data-driven approach in procurement risk management
The European Commission provided technical support to enhance public integrity in Belgium, focusing on federal-level integrity policies and their implementation. It strengthened integrity management, particularly in public procurement, and employed data-driven approaches to mitigate corruption risks in tendering processes. Long-term goals were to create a more effective integrity system and reduce corruption in federal procurement. Short- to medium-term outcomes included adopting integrity tools, embedding a data-driven risk model in procurement, and enhancing capacity for AI-supported model to improve the planning of audits across the public procurement cycle. Outputs included an inception report, analytical studies, tools for integrity management and capacity-building activities such as workshops.
Context
The overall coherence and effectiveness of integrity and anti-corruption policies of the Belgian authorities faces specific challenges, due the multitude of integrity actors and applicable regulations, which has resulted in a lack of clarity and visibility, as well as implementation gaps and loopholes in legislation. The Royal Decree on Integrity, adopted on 18 April 2023, addresses one of these vulnerabilities by requiring federal public organisations to identify integrity objectives and corresponding indicators to develop hands-on and measurable action plans.
Support delivered
The project provided targeted support to Belgian federal authorities through in-depth analyses, hands-on guidance, tailored tools and capacity-building activities. This included pilot testing and practical resources to develop practical integrity tools, enhance data-driven risk models to guide procurement auditing, build institutional capacity to ensure the effective implementation of integrity policies and the sustainable management of corruption risks focusing on the procurement cycle.
Results achieved
The project achieved tangible results through a mix of in-person and online fact-finding missions and consultation workshops, the development of a draft external reporting template and technical guidance, and a workshop with pilot organisations to test these tools. A finalised reporting template, consultation meetings, an integrity toolkit and multilingual training sessions further strengthened institutional capacity. The analytics model developed and tested by the Federal Internal Audit Service supports the early detection of irregularities shifting risk identification from being ad hoc or intuition-based to something more objective, systematic, and proactive. This is instrumental in a time of tighter budgets and growing public demand for transparency and accountability making the ability to identify procurement risks in a structured way an absolute priority.
More about the project
You can read the documents related to the project here: