"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be."
Lord Kelvin

Publications

How much money did Közgép Ltd win in 2013?

Publications, Research Notes

Four online portals tried to estimate in the beginning of 2014 the total amount of money that ’Közgép’ group, owned by former close friend (Lajos Simicska) of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, won in public procurement in 2013. The four sources (Portfolio.hu, Átlátszó, K-Monitor, Hír24) calculated four different sums. There was more than half a billion Euro difference between the highest and the lowest estimates. Given that public procurement records are open to the public, it is evidently read more

ANTICORRP Conference on Public Procurement and Corruption Risk

Presentations, Publications

 

May 12, 2015

 

The Corvinus University of Budapest (CUB) organized a conference about the ANTICORRP research program, the Hungarian government’s anti-corruption policy, and the new public procurement law on 12th May 2015, after István János Tóth’s (CRCB) opening and presentation about the ANTICORRP program’s objectives and results, Dr. László Kovács (Prime Minister’s Office) presented the most critical changes in the new Hungarian public procurement law. Mihály Fazekas (CUB, CRCB) highlighted recent results on measuring corruption risks in read more

EU Funds and Corruption Risk in Hungary

Presentations, Publications

 

April 17, 2015

 

According to CRCB research, corruption risk for EU-funded contracts is slightly higher than for national agreements at the European level, but in Hungary, it is significantly higher. These additional corruption risk is related to the poor quality of the country’s institutional environment. This press release in Hungarian presents empirical results on corruption risks and the use of EU funds in Hungary and other EU countries.

Press release (in read more

Mapping high-level corruption risks in Spanish public procurement

Publications, Reports

Alejandro Ferrando Gamir

Abstract

High-level corruption and fraud has had an increased impact on the social and political debate in Spain, especially since the beginning of the financial crisis when several cuts in social spending were made. Greater attention is being paid to where and how the government spends its public resources. This paper explores the extent and forms of political corruption in Spanish public procurement. Its main contribution is the rich analytical discussion of read more

CRCB-WP/2014:02

Publications, Working Papers

Czibik, Á – Fazekas, M – Tóth, B – Tóth I J: Toolkit for detecting collusive bidding in public procurement. With examples from Hungary. Working Paper Series: CRCB-WP/2014:02.

Across the globe, the exposure of collusive behaviour of companies in procurement markets is predominantly based on qualitative information from firms or individuals involved in collusion. This makes detection rare and titled towards disintegrating bidding rings. Economic analysis, modelling and forecasting have a limited role in this field. However, the increasing availability of large read more

Corruption Risk of the Nuclear Power Plant Investments: What Can We Expect in the Case of Paks II?

Presentations, Publications, Reports, ,

 

December 22, 2014

 

In January 2014, the Hungarian Government announced that it had reached an agreement with the Russian Government to construct two new reactors to replace the current capacity at the Paks nuclear power plant. Paks I is a Soviet-built plant that has been operational since 1983. It is the only nuclear power plant in the country and provides about 40% of Hungary’s electricity. With an estimated budget of 3-4 trillion Hungarian forint (9-13 billion euros), the project will be Hungary’s read more

Finding the Hay Stack and the Needle. Using Big Data to Evaluate Public Procurement Performance

Presentations, Publications

December 8, 2014

 

Mihály Fazekas presented at the International Corruption Hunters Alliance meeting organised by the World Bank in Washington, DC. This conference brought together heads and senior officials of corruption investigating bodies and prosecuting authorities, anti-corruption experts, academics, and representatives of international organizations from over 130 countries. His presentation was part of the panel on how to use data mining and ‘Big Data’ to better detect, investigate, and read more

CRCB-WP/2014:01

Publications, Working Papers

Fazekas, M – Tóth, I J: From corruption to state capture:  A new analytical framework with empirical applications from Hungary. Working Paper Series: CRCB-WP/2014:01.
State capture and corruption are widespread phenomena across the globe, but their empirical study is still highly challenging. This paper develops a new conceptual and analytical framework for gauging state capture based on micro-level contractual networks in public procurement. To this end, it first establishes a robust measure of corruption risks in public procurement transactions focusing on relationships between pairs of issuers and suppliers. Second, it searches for read more

Analytical Framework to Capture Corruption and Collusion Risks in Public Procurement

Presentations, Publications

 

November 12, 2014

 

The staff of CRCB briefed European Commission and Member State public procurement officials about the CRCB risk assessment methodology and future perspectives for collaboration within CRCB’s new large-scale research program, called DIGIWHIST. His presentation was part of the 12th of November 2014 meeting of the Economic and Statistical Working Group (Advisory Committee on Public Procurement), Brussels.

The presentation: (PDF)

 

Suggested read more

New ways to measure institutionalised grand corruption in public procurement

Publications, Reports

Fazekas M. – Tóth I. J.. (2014), New ways to measure institutionalised grand corruption in public procurement. U4 Policy Brief, October 2014 No 9, CMI-U4.

Public procurement, one of the largest areas of public spending worldwide, gives public officials wide discretion. It is therefore unsurprising that it is also one of the government functions most often vulnerable to corruption. While there have been many qualitative accounts of high-level corruption in public contracting, it is only recently that read more