What Needs To Happen to Open Public Procurement- Policy

–Ian Makgill, Founder, Spend Network

There are three basic requirements for implementing a contracting transparency initiative, the first is policy.

Creating new policies is easy, as long as you never have to implement them. Creating a policy that is designed to be implemented is much harder. Fortunately, the Open Contracting Partnership have, yet again, done all the heavy lifting for policy teams their guide to implementation has everything you need to get started.

The first step is to get the commitment to implement transparency, preferably a time-bound commitment. This is where donors and partnerships can hold sway. International donors such as the World Bank and IMF are increasingly demanding procurement transparency as a condition of funding. Partners such as the Open Government Partnership provide useful commitment frameworks and NGOs such are Transparency International can provide a powerful public voice calling for transparency.

If there is still some way to go with wholesale contract transparency, consider making just your Covid-19 related procurement open. Emergency procurements are highly vulnerable to corruption and transparency is probably the best countermeasure for public officials when faced with large scale corruption.

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