The OpenMoney platform was relaunched today. Citizens will be able to track down how public money is spent, as well as who the beneficial owners of contracts granted by state institutions are thanks to this platform. The platform uses open data, which are automatically processed to reveal the connections between the public procurement contracts and final beneficiaries. The initiative belongs to the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE) and “SENSMEDIA” company, being supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Moldova.
OpenMoney 2.0 is an updated version of OpenMoney platform, launched in 2016, during the first anticorruption hackathon initiated by UNDP. After its relaunch, the platform will have several new functionalities, including integration of public data from available governmental online platforms and posting information about public procurements, according to the administrative territorial units of the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, the system for collecting and presenting data was improved, and a wide use platform was developed, becoming available for citizens.
According to Alla Skvortsova, of UNDP, the modernized version of the OpenMoney platform is designed to increase transparency and to prevent manifestations of corruption in public procurement. UNDP is sure that the creative approaches that offer space for the involvement of women and men in the prevention of corruption can generate efficient and long-lasting solutions to the existing challenges and the OpenMoney platform proves this. The information provided by the platform in time has been used in journalistic investigations and not only.
MP Igor Munteanu, chairman of the Parliament’s public finances control commission, noted that public procurement and the way in which the public authorities make acquisitions influence a lot the output and optimal use of the scarce resources of the state and the citizens. The journalistic investigations of the last few years revealed irregularities in public procurement, while the public accusations affected considerably the authority of state enterprises and organizations where purchases were made with many irregularities. For its part, the Court of Auditors in practically each audit report warns about multiple shortcomings in this field. The current system for managing contracts needs to be improved.
According to Lidia Chireoglo, vice director of the National Anticorruption Center, the public procurement system remains one of the most vulnerable ones, with corruption risks and conflicts of interest. Being a platform that centralizes the public data of state institutions, the procurement processes and public tender contests, the OpenMoney project is a useful instrument, especially to the general public, as it is a free means for those who want to control and make public the rigging risks in public procurement. .
Since 2016, the OpenMoney platform was browsed by 186,161 single users, and a total number of 64,.047 pages were accessed.
