Partner spotlight
Microsoft ACTS, Control Risks deepen partnership to improve government transparency worldwide
Microsoft ACTS is continuing to evolve its approach to better meet the needs of customers and governments around the world. Control Risks is a critical part of that effort. We are working to further our relationship with Control Risks by combining our data analytics expertise with their insights into government operations around the world.
We introduced our readers to Control Risks in 2021. At that time, we highlighted their use of data analytics solutions—coupled with their political risk expertise and on the ground human analysis—to uncover potential corruption.
As a key Microsoft ACTS partner, Control Risks’ industry intelligence and country and region expertise is instrumental in the identification of corruption risks. Control Risks’ data-driven approach, matched with our own application of technology to develop new and innovative insights to create greater transparency, is at the core of our collaboration.
Control Risks and other partners continue to work with Microsoft ACTS on measures to improve transparency and governance. One of these solution areas develops a set of procurement “red flags”. This transparency solution now includes several services that deliver new insights and benefits to an already popular solution. Ultimately, these types of services will make government agencies more effective and efficient in their evaluation of vast amounts of data to surface insights that may indicate suspicious activity and require additional audits or investigations.
Pictured above: Geert Aalbers, a partner with Control Risks
Knowing how governments work
“A big part of developing effective “red flags” systems is understanding the nuances of the political landscape and how different government institutions within a country interact, work together, and make decisions,” says Geert Aalbers, a partner with Control Risks.
“That speaks to one of our core strengths. We have over 100 political risks analysts located around the world whose job is to help clients decipher political and regulatory risk issues and provide actionable intelligence.”
For Microsoft ACTS—whose strength relies on its tremendous well of software engineering ability—Control Risks offers deep risk management experience across dozens of countries and regions. Their work requires an understanding of the local political and social dynamics, languages, and cultures. The combination of these soft skills and on the ground presence with their deep expertise in managing security, political, and integrity risks are rare and make an enormous difference.
“A big part of developing effective “red flags” systems is understanding the nuances of the political landscape and how different government institutions within a country interact, work together, and make decisions,”
Geert Aalbers, a partner with Control Risks.
“It helps us establish credibility, and relationships based on mutual trust and respect, with key leaders in government, the private sector, academia, media, and civil society in countries in which we have a presence,” Aalbers says. “We believe this is why we continue to be sought by our clients to advise on some of their most sensitive matters around the globe.”
Control Risks’ unique combination of human expertise and data-driven insights are the core ingredients to producing deeply researched reports about governments’ capacity to prevent, deter, and root out corruption. A key example of this type of research is the Capacity to Combat Corruption (CCC) Index, which is jointly produced with Americas Society/Council of the Americas. The CCC index covers 15 countries in Latin America and the fourth edition was released in June 2022.
“We’re looking forward to continuing our work with ACTS,” Aalbers says. “Together, we can make a real difference supporting governments to detect and tackle corruption.”