Diverse uses of government contracting data to improve spending of public funds

Government contracting has experienced an explosion of available data in the last decade, marked by the rise of the global Open Contracting Data Standard. However, it remains largely under-utilized for Big Data analytics and embedding findings in policy making. In order to address this gap and promote the use of government administrative data for policy making, this paper provides a review on the availability, scope and quality of datasets in government contracting in 35 European countries and highlights prominent use cases to inspire policy makers and civil society. State of the art findings come from the ongoing Horizon2020-funded research project led by the University of Cambridge, called DIGIWHIST, which benchmarks, standardizes, and republishes public procurement data across Europe while also providing key performance indicators directly relevant for policy. Use cases demonstrate how civil society can use Big Data to hold governments accountable; and how governments can use advanced market analytics for detecting collusive competitors and safeguarding public spending.