End of Commitment Report – Open contracting system for participatory budgeting in San Pedro Garza García

Name of Evaluator

Ricardo Luevano

Email

ricardo.luevano@inai.org.mx

Member Name

San Pedro Garza García, Mexico

Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... Title

Action plan – San Pedro Garza García, Mexico, 2022 – 2024

CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...

Open contractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... More system for participatory budgeting in San Pedro Garza García

Title

Open contracting system for participatory budgeting in San Pedro Garza García

Action

The municipality of San Pedro Garza García is committed to generating a digital tool for open contracting on the municipal participatory budget that is accessible, user-friendly, intuitive, and transparent throughout the procurement process, allowing for real-time accountability to citizens. The platform will have open procurement standards: public information from planning to implementation, open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici..., and feedback mechanisms to improve decision-making. In the medium term, this will serve to pilot an open contracting scheme in the municipality and will, in the long term, promote competition and economic inclusionTransparency, participation, and accountability are essential to ensuring that social spending and services reach their intended populations and provide the outcomes that are needed. Technical specifi... More. Prevent and combat corruption in procurement. Improve the delivery and efficiency of government services. Strengthen the capacities of informed citizenship. Strengthen and clean the suppliers’ registry to make public resources more efficient.

Problem

According to several international organizations, public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... More poses the greatest risk of corruption for governments. The European Commission states that this type of corruption reduces the value of a public contract by 10 to 25%. Citizens have the potential to help oversight in public procurement, but they are underutilized in the Municipality of San Pedro. Specifically, San Pedro lacks a strategy for citizens to monitor contracting processes and make them more efficient and open, mainly in the Decide San Pedro strategic project of participatory budgeting, the most important program for participation and contracting in the city. There are already citizens interested in participating by monitoring these processes, but San Pedro has not created the means for them to do so. There is also a need to strengthen and clean the list of suppliers and contractors.

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

complete

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

According to the current work plan, all established milestones were met and the verification methods consulted correspond to what was established.

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

It was identified that the process of aligning the commitment within the municipality had a learning curve since, in the process, the expectations and times had to be defined from the beginning, which is addressed by the fact that there should be more involvement from the design. However, they were able to align the expectations for the development of the milestones. On the other hand, in the learning process of the EDCA its complexity of adapting it to an internal operating system was identified, so it was projected to be able to adapt it even more to the user who loaded the information.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

All of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

According to the content of the Implementation Report of the Local Open Government Action Plan 2022-2024 of Nuevo León, a series of modifications were not made to the milestones described in the Local Open Government Action Plan.

2.1.1. Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Participatory budgeting is an open government practice that municipalities can carry out so that people can decide what to do in specific projects. However, with this commitment, more information is opened since it aims to show how it is done through public contracts, thus making information transparent in a focused way, in addition to aligning themselves with an international standard with the EDCA.

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The commitment allows the population to be informed about the contracting process carried out by the municipality on the participatory budget projects that are being executed. It also encourages accountability. On the other hand, there is an opportunity to carry out a communication campaign that encourages consultation and monitoring by citizens.

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The commitment establishes that there is an involvement of strategic actors and decision-makers. In addition, the system in which the information is entered already has the EDCA fields enabled, leaving a Manual that allows the knowledge to be sustainable for the use of the platform. However, no section is identified where responsibilities in this regard are specified.

2.1.4 Other Results

Not Applicable

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The problem is that the population lacked a mechanism to monitor contracts, so the municipality undertook a series of adaptations to its participatory budget platform that enable the population to monitor the platform in greater detail since it makes transparent the contracting processes carried out for each project seeking to comply with the EDCA adjustments.

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

It was identified that the implementers of the commitment had learned about involving decision-makers from an early stage so that the project was viable. Likewise, they took into consideration not only an aspect of what was desired for the public but also that it is important to consider the operation within the municipality to make the different information management processes more efficient, which promotes the sustainability of the project.
In light of the implementation of the EDCA in Participatory Budget projects, it will be important for the municipality to broaden the focus of open contracting to all its purchasing procedures so that citizens can monitor its work and thereby legitimize its exercise.