At a time when the aid sector is battling to maintain its reputation for spending public money well, corruption in public procurement – the purchasing of public services such as health, education or infrastructure – particularly when funded by development aid, is a delicate topic.
Following a highly engaging debate at SOAS on the topic of using big data to identify indicators for corruption in aid-funded public procurement – and the solutions it could point to – the researchers who presented their new evidence, Liz David-Barrett (Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Sussex) and Mihály Fazekas (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Cambridge), researchers on a British Academy Anti-Corruption Evidence programme-funded project, discussed the issue in greater depth on the SOAS Economics blog.
