PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Open Contracting and Public Procurement

Reducing Corruption & Increasing Transparency.

Why Public Procurement Data Matters for Government Transparency
Each year, governments spend trillions of dollars on public procurement of goods and services. Much of that is lost to financial waste or corruption. Effective collection and analysis of procurement data can streamline public procurement processes, reduce waste and graft, and bring citizens confidence that their governments are spending tax money wisely. Open contracting fosters stronger links between governments and citizenry.
About Our Open Contracting ToolBox

DG creates tools and services aimed at helping governments and citizens leverage public procurement data to improve service delivery. At the core of our approach lies our Open Contracting (OC) Explorer, an open-source tool for storing, disclosing, and analyzing procurement data. We take data directly from government sources and convert and publish the data in the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS), allowing it to be viewed through a suite of interactive tools for data visualization and in-depth analytics.

Our holistic approach addresses:

  • legal and regulatory frameworks
  • technical infrastructure
  • data management and requirements
  • institutional and political support in public procurement.
Systems that Promote Procurement Transparency

We develop systems and strategies that aim to help procurement officials and communities to gain insight into the efficiency, competitiveness, and fairness of procurement practices using interactive charts, graphs, and web GIS.

Working with states, counties, and cities since the inception of the open contracting movement, DG has developed systems that support open contracting at the local level in addition to growing transparency at the national level. As a result, we have built a reputation among governments and the global open contracting community as active implementers.
Our unique perspective is informed by supporting the implementation of open contracting projects at the country and local levels, ensuring they meet international standards, while also working with international bodies to define those standards.

impact

Since the inception of the open contracting movement, we have worked in over a dozen countries and localities, and have built a reputation among government and the global open contracting community as active implementers. This includes:

Developing a Roadwork Procurement Public Portal for Vialidad Argentina: In 2018-2019, DG supported Vialidad Argentina, the Government of Argentina’s National Roadworks Directorate (DNV), in the implementation of an open contracting (OC) data portal for the DNV. The portal displays the DNV’s public contracting data from 2016 to present day, using the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS). With OCDS, organizations like DNV can increase public procurement transparency and allow external users to access available data.

The open-source technology DG’s technical team chose allows us to pull information from several databases and documents, perform data migration both manually and at specific time intervals aligned with client needs, and the source code is easily maintained by the DNV team. The project built on DG’s OC Explorer model, an open-source tool for storing, disclosing, and analyzing procurement data, and our suite of backend tools and open-source analytics dashboards built to support system-wide visualization and reporting.

Open Contracting Support & Training in Bandung, Indonesia: With the support and engagement of the World Bank, DG provided training and coaching to a municipal government development team in Bandung, Indonesia, to implement OCDS data mapping. This partnership led to the launch of an exciting procurement data portal for Bandung City, with a functioning OCDS API. While DG typically develops technology tools that build on OCDS, here our role was that of a mentor. We were asked to bring our experience working with OCDS to guide and provide help to another developer to implement the standard himself. As a result, Bandung City became one of the first cities to publish planning, tender, and award data in OCDS. In 2018, Bandung City published approximately 40,000 procurements from the prior 3 years.

Open Contracting (OC) Hewlett: Enhanced Use of OC & Procurement Analytics for Development Results: We worked with the procurement authorities, civil society, and private sector stakeholders in Senegal and Kenya to publish data in the OCDS and support data use efforts. DG conducted assessments in each country to understand how users want to use procurement data, and developed technical approaches to data conversion and publication. Using findings from assessments, DG developed tools to facilitate data use, such as our Open Contracting Portal, which allows government staff to directly enter data, upload approved documents, and complete data validation in-portal to support high-quality data entry.

In addition, DG collaborated with Hivos to implement this in Kenya, and conducted OC assessments at the subnational level in Makueni and Nyandarua counties. As a result, DG also developed Kenya’s first-of-its-kind county-level Open Contracting Portal in Makueni county. The portal is an interactive site that provides detailed information about each step along the tender, award, and implementation process. The launch of the public portal was a huge step in increasing transparency and reducing corruption in sub-national procurement.

After successful implementation, DG implemented the OC portal in Elgeyo Marakwet and Nandi counties as well.