global investigative journalism conference kiev - 2011
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Global Investigative Journalism Conference Kiev - 2011. Agenda. Europe’s Hidden Billions - who benefits from European Structural Funds? What are Structural Funds? What we found Our approach Web and PDF scraping Data analysis techniques (exclusion lists, watch lists). - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Global Investigative Journalism Conference
Kiev - 2011
Agenda
• Europe’s Hidden Billions - who benefits from European Structural Funds?
– What are Structural Funds?– What we found– Our approach – Web and PDF scraping– Data analysis techniques (exclusion lists, watch lists)
Europe’s Hidden Billions
• €347bn over 7 years
• 12 member multi-lingual team
• 1 database
• Nearly 600 data sheets
• 21 languages
• More than 640,000 records
• More than 100 agencies
Europe’s Hidden Billions – What are the Structural Funds ?
• Europe’s second largest subsidy scheme – worth €347bn over 7 years (current funding round 2007-2013)
• More than 1/3 of EU budget
• Aims to redistribute Europe’s wealth and lift the economies of
its poorest regions
Europe’s Hidden Billions – Some of our findings
• Opaque – it’s extremely difficult for taxpayers to trace how their money is spent
• Bureaucracy means low uptake (at end of 2010 only 10% paid)
• Weak oversight system rarely punishes fraud
• Millions of euros continue to be siphoned off by organised crime
• Some of the biggest corporate beneficiaries are multinational corporations such as Nokia, Siemens, Fiat
• Companies relocating have obtained funding in contravention to rules
e.g. Twinings
Europe’s Hidden Billions – Fraud and mismanagement
• European Court of Auditors 11% ‘error rate’
• Errors and irregularities - €1.22bn / 2009: €109m suspected fraud
• OLAF – 20 fraud investigators; inefficient take long
• Ndrangheta (Italian mafia) fraud through law 488
• Idle desalination plant Illegal luxury hotels in Spanish UNESCO nature reserve
Europe’s Hidden Billions – Reaction
• Commission held a press conference and mounted up a full-blown public relations campaign in an attempt to counter our stories
• ‘FT is in cahoots with the UK government’
• European Parliament: the series was extensively referenced in committee hearings. MEPs have called for increased powers of independent parliamentary scrutiny over grant applications
Europe’s Hidden Billions – Is this transparency?
• No central database
• Neither Commission nor anti-fraud body has full overview
• Erratic level of disclosure
Europe’s Hidden Billions – How we did it
Beneficiary data600 + pdfs
Master Google spreadsheet
Database - server Dashboard (online)
search
Full export for macro analysis
Individual country files to correspondents
Numbers used in coverage checked with companies and authorities (shoe-leather)
Europe’s Hidden Billions – How we did it
Europe’s Hidden Billions – How we did it
• Web scraping (unPDF; AbbyFine reader with OCR)
• Data analysis tools
Europe’s Hidden Billions – How we did it
Excluded Parties List (US)
FT/BIJ database
EU Restructuring database
Debarment lists – not public for EU
WHY?
Europe’s Hidden Billions – How we did it
Europe’s Hidden Billions – the database