Use: Procurement data analytics

To what extent is there evidence of government procurement data being analyzed to improve procurement practice?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Procurement data analytics involves using structured data about procurement processes to produce insights and knowledge, and to support decision-making.

Among other things, procurement data analytics can be used to:

• Produce interactive dashboards that report basic statistics such as procurement spend by department or category, the kinds of procurement processes used, and the length of time each process has taken.
• Look for potential corruption or fraud risks using red flag analysis.
• Improve the diversity of procurement by reporting on, and developing strategies to improve, the number of bidders or contract winners from particular marginalized communities.
• Assess and improve the environmental impact of procurement.

Evidence that government procurement data is being analyzed in these ways may take the form of:

• Interactive online tools;
• Business processes that make decisions based on data analysis;
• Reports that demonstrate advanced analysis (more than simple summary statistics or counts of procurements).

Note: The analytic tools a government uses may or may not be public, and may or may not be based on data that is openly published. For non-public tools, you may find evidence of them in presentations, press releases, or public statements. For public tools, you may find evidence of them on procurement agency websites.

Research Guidance

In countries where procurement data is open, analytic tools may be produced and hosted by government, or they may be produced by third parties, including civil society. Because the shortest route to impact is often when government makes direct use of procurement analytics, for this question you should focus first on checking for evidence that government is making use of procurement analytics by:

• Checking for dashboards or analytic tools on the website of, or produced by, the procurement agency/agencies identified in previous questions;
• Look for case studies and reports on government use of procurement data, and/or consult experts who may know about how government is making use of procurement data.

You should also check for evidence of platforms created by third parties by carrying out web searches for relevant terms. These platforms may be based on published structured data, or might involve scraping or manually collecting procurement data.

You will need to decide upon the appropriate search terms for your country to look for examples of procurement analytics related to diversity and inclusion.

Starting points

• Sources:
  • No general sources have been identified for this question, however, the Open Contracting Partnership impact evidence pages provide useful case studies that can help you to identify appropriate search terms or search strategies for your focus country.
• Search:
  • "Government procurement dashboard" + [country];
  • [Procurement agency name] "dashboard";
  • Procurement red flag analysis + [country / procurement agency name]
  • "Sustainable procurement" + "data" + [country]
  • Diversity keywords + procurement + data [country]
• Consult:
  • Government procurement officials or experts;
  • Civil society campaigners focused on procurement.

What to look for?

Look for uses of procurement data, through analytic tools and other forms of data analysis, that seek to make procurement practices more transparent, fair, inclusive, or sustainable.

• What form do these uses take? For example:
  • Interactive dashboards;
  • Red flag analysis;
  • Initiatives to improve the diversity of procurement processes;
  • Environmental impact assessments related to procurement;
• Who is analyzing the data or using analytic tools? Government, civil society organizations?
• Is there evidence of artificial intelligence or machine learning being used in conjunction with analytics?
• Is beneficial ownership data being used along with public procurement datasets?
• What kinds of impact have these tools or analysis had?

National and sub-national considerations

For this indicator, you may track and assess national and sub-national examples without distinction; note in the justification box if the examples you found mostly drew on national or sub-national data.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• To what extent is there evidence of this kind of data use?
  • There is no evidence of this use.
  • There is evidence of isolated uses or pilot projects.

    Supporting questions: Please provide URLs of the evidence and briefly describe it.

  • There is evidence of multiple different uses involving different organisations.

    Supporting questions: Please provide URLs of the evidence and briefly describe it.

  • There is evidence that these uses are widespread, regular and embedded.

    Supporting questions: Please provide URLs of the evidence and briefly describe it.

Elements

• Kinds of use:

• There is evidence of government procurement data being presented through data-driven dashboards. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If dashboards are public, please provide the URL of an example dashboard page.

• There is evidence of government procurement data being used for red flag analysis. (No, Partially, Yes) If you cannot find current evidence, but do find evidence from outside the study period, answer 'Partially.'

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: If there are public online tools used to perform red flag analysis, please provide the URL of an example.

  If Partially: Please briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is evidence that government procurement data is being analyzed to improve access to procurement opportunities for marginalized groups. (No, Partially, Yes) If you cannot find current evidence, but do find evidence from outside the study period, answer 'Partially.'

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly list any marginalized groups addressed (e.g., women

  If Partially or Yes: If available, please provide a URL to a page, tool, or report providing details.

  If Partially: Please, briefly explain your 'Partially' answer.

• There is evidence of government procurement data being analysed to support sustainable / environmental procurement. (No, Partially, Yes) If you cannot find current evidence, but do find evidence from outside the study period, answer 'Partially.'

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide brief details.

  If Partially or Yes: If available, please provide a URL to a page, tool or report providing details.

• User groups:

• There are examples of government using data in these ways. (No, Partially, Yes) If you find tools designed for government, but no evidence these are being used by government, answer 'Partially.'

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL or brief description

• There are examples of civil society using data in these ways. (No, Partially, Yes) If you find tools designed for civil society, but no evidence these are being used by civil society, answer 'Partially.'

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL or brief description.

• There is evidence of private sector using data in this way (No, Partially, Yes)

• Specific features:

• At least one of the examples cited appears to make use of open procurement data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• At least one of the examples identified makes use of open beneficial ownership data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please, briefly explain your answer.

• At least one of the examples identified describes using artificial Intelligence or machine learning to process data (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if you have doubts about the accuracy of claims to be using AI/machine-learning.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide brief details of the example(s) and how they describe using AI/machine-learning.

Extent

• There is evidence that these uses have had or are having meaningful positive impacts.
  • No
  • Partially

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to relevant evidence.

  • Yes

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to relevant evidence.

Indicator Justification

Data analytics can be applied to government procurement in order to deliver improved outcomes in many different ways. This indicator explores the connections between data availability and data use, asking about a range of applications of procurement data analytics and whether these uses involve government or civil society stakeholders.

For this indicator, we prioritize direct government use of data analytics, as evidence suggests that this creates the shortest path to better outcomes. We have selected four applications of procurement data analytics:

• General dashboards;
• Red flag analysis;
• Analytics to support improved diversity;
• Analytics to support sustainable procurement.