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Global Investigative Journalism Conference Kiev - 2011

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).

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Global Investigative Journalism Conference Kiev - 2011

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  1. Global Investigative Journalism Conference Kiev - 2011

  2. 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)

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. Europe’s Hidden Billions – Is this transparency? • No central database • Neither Commission nor anti-fraud body has full overview • Erratic level of disclosure

  9. Europe’s Hidden Billions – How we did it Beneficiary data 600 + 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)

  10. Europe’s Hidden Billions – How we did it

  11. Europe’s Hidden Billions – How we did it • Web scraping (unPDF; AbbyFine reader with OCR)

  12. Europe’s Hidden Billions – How we did it • Data analysis tools

  13. Europe’s Hidden Billions – How we did it Debarment lists – not public for EU WHY? FT/BIJ database Excluded Parties List (US) EU Restructuring database

  14. Europe’s Hidden Billions – the database

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