SIGMA - a public tool for transparency of public procurement, developed by the Ministry of Innovation and Digital Transformation (MIDT) with the help of artificial intelligence, was presented at the Council of Ministers today. The platform provides access to data on 193,019 contracts worth a total of over 51 billion euros, concluded by 4,440 institutions for the period 2020-2026. Access is completely free, without registration, with easy user navigation and is located at sigma.midt.bg. It is updated daily. The development was carried out in less than a month since the establishment of the new ministry by MIDT employees in cooperation with the Public Procurement Agency and Information Services, without additional budgetary expenditure. Its development and presentation are together with the Council of Ministers and part of the government's commitment to increasing transparency and control over the spending of public funds.
SIGMA is a System for Integrated Citizen Monitoring and Analysis and is a public tool that shows where taxpayer money goes through open data on public procurement from the official register. SIGMA (Σ), the mathematical symbol for sum, collects and displays the sum of all public contracts between 2020 and 2026. The platform is the first in a series of public tools of the new Ministry of Innovation and Digital Transformation, which brings together data from the official register of public procurement (CAIS EOP / AOP) in one place, makes them clear, connected and easy to search, shows real facts and leaves the judgment to citizens, journalists, analysts, non-governmental organizations and competent authorities.
„We have undertaken to develop and implement a system that will automatically monitor violations in public procurement and the spending of public resources. I am extremely pleased that in just a month we have already taken the first decisive step. The Ministry of Innovation and Digital Transformation managed to develop the first version and summarize a huge amount of information“, said Prime Minister Rumen Radev at the presentation of SIGMA in the Granite Hall of the Council of Ministers.
"At the Ministry of Innovation and Digital Transformation, we prove that the administration can innovate. In one month, the team of the new ministry launched a system that no one has ever wanted to develop or has failed to do. Well, we did it in a short time and with our own resources and with the help of artificial intelligence“, said Minister Ivan Vassilev. “The most important thing is that the platform, since its first version, has been open access and open source. It is accessible to both citizens and journalists, as well as IT specialists, on whom we rely extremely heavily to continue upgrading SIGMA, as well as other platforms that we will develop at the Ministry of Innovation and Digital Transformation“, he added.
According to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2025, Bulgaria is in last place in the EU with the lowest score since 2012. Expert assessments by the European Commission and independent research institutes put the corruption markup in public procurement at around 8-9% of their value. With a portfolio of 50 billion euros over six years, this means a potential loss of over 4 billion euros. Transparency is the most reliable mechanism for restoring trust and combating corrupt practices. SIGMA is an institutional response to this reality, which gives every citizen, journalist and analyst a tool with which to check the numbers and ask questions for themselves.
SIGMA consolidates data from the official public procurement register (CAIS EOP / AOP) and provides it to the user in a linked form with the ability to search by:
• Name of the contracting institution
• Name of the contractor company or UIC
• Keyword or subject of the contract
• Order number in the register
For each contract, its financial history is also visible: estimated value upon announcement, agreed value upon conclusion and current value after possible annexes. Each list can also be downloaded as a CSV file, and each contract - as a file, and the data is updated daily.
SIGMA does not collect or process users' personal data. The platform is free, without login and does not require registration, it does not store data on visits. The source of the data is the official register, where the anonymization of personal data is stipulated by law. SIGMA does not add additional information and does not disclose personal data beyond those publicly available by law. Only data for legal entities (companies, institutions) that are parties to public contracts are visible, and this is public information by law and does not constitute a personal secret.
The current, first, version of SIGMA does not yet include data on the relationship between subcontractors and related parties, subcontractors and co-owners, which requires additional connection to the Commercial Register. This functionality, as well as automatic detection of discrepancies between the estimated and real value of contracts, a public risk index with a transparent methodology, are among the planned next steps of the platform, which aims to have a long-term vision to objectively control the public procurement process.
Each new version will be publicly displayed, along with a description of the changes.
The SIGMA code has been published on the state GitHub profile since the day of the announcement, with a public license. Any developer can see the mechanism, suggest improvements and upgrade the platform. MIDT invites the IT community in Bulgaria to actively participate in the development of the tool. SIGMA data is available in CSV and open digital format and can be taken and upgraded. MIDT invites startups, developers, data analysts, investigative journalism teams, NGOs, IT and academia to build their own tools for analysis, visualizations, notifications, comparisons and investigations on this foundation. SIGMA is conceived as a base on which to develop an entire ecosystem of citizen transparency tools: the more such tools appear, the more useful the foundation itself is. Any further development in this direction will find a partner in MIDT that supports it, because it starts from the data and open source that the ministry provided first.
Key facts as of 16.06.2026
• 193,019 contracts for the period 2020-2026.
• Over 51 billion euros total tracked value
• 4,440 contracting authorities at national and local level
• 17,449 contractors
• Daily update from the official register
• Open source with public license from the day of release
• Developed in one month by MIDT employees, without additional budget expenditure