Alice: Challenges, results and perspectives of the continuous auditing tool for government procurement using artificial intelligence

Abstract

Government procurements are carried out to implement policies and provide public services in a satisfactory manner to society. Purchases made by the Brazilian Federal Government correspond to 1.5% of the national Gross Domestic Product on average (R$119 billion in 2021). In addition to the large volume of resources, the public procurement process is perceived as very vulnerable to fraud (OECD, 2018). Considering the relevance, the total amount of expenses, and the risks involved, the Office of the Comptroller General created the Bidding, Contracts, and Tenders Analyzer (Analisador de Licitações, Contratos e Editais – Alice) with the objective of adding value to public management acting in a preventive and timely manner in relation to public procurement. The system automatically collects daily information about the processes underway in the Federal Government's main public procurement information systems, evaluates a set of risks, and raises red flags to direct the attention of the auditors and managers about situations that deviate from the reference standard. It is, therefore, a Continuous Auditing tool, with robotic automation of processes, which raises red flags about possible problems in public procurements. Alice accumulates positive results daily. More than R$ 9.7 billion in purchases have already been suspended based on its indications, only by the CGU. On the way to achieving these results, the CGU has experienced great challenges, as described in this report. The crucial point for the tool's success was the integration of its results into the ordinary work process of the CGU, with strong top management sponsorship. The tool is now evolving to add more functionalities that use artificial intelligence techniques, and to add new databases.