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Open Contracting and Public Procurement

Open contracting and transparency in public procurement have proven to save money and broaden competition. It is becoming a global norm in OGP, with over 70 members committing to reforms on the issue.

See the Guide to Open Government and the Coronavirus: Public Procurement »

Overview | Recommendations | Partners | Data | Documents | Commitments | Recent Posts

Overview

The financial and human cost of corruption in public contracting is significant. According to the UN, corruption reduces the value of a public contract by 10 to 25 percent. 

OGP provides a platform for governments to adopt open contracting policies focused on disclosure, participation, and oversight throughout the entire procurement chain. The combination of these activities helps governments save money, fight corruption, and expand the number of participating businesses, particularly small and women-owned businesses. 

The COVID-19 pandemic makes clear exactly what is at stake if procurement remains opaque. Public procurement systems around the world are under unprecedented pressure to secure medical supplies at the most efficient rates possible. In this context, corruption risks in public spending undermine effective, life-saving action. Accountable and transparent procurement, including with citizen monitoring, is a fundamental policy reform for anti-corruption and Open Response, Recovery, Renewal across OGP countries. In this context, more OGP members have committed to open procurement, including in regions like Europe where transparent contracting is a fundamental piece of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

The number of local and national governments advancing open contracting is growing. In the early years of this work, just ten percent of OGP members focused on open contracting, but by 2021, three in four OGP members had implemented open contracting and public procurement reforms. This steady growth has helped establish open contracting as a global norm—an unwritten standard of good governance. 

In OGP, the majority of open contracting commitments focuses on information disclosure. OGP members have also been piloting sector-specific application of open contracting reforms, such as in the health, infrastructure, and extractive sectors, establishing beneficial ownership registers for government suppliers, and  creating opportunities to open up procurement markets to women, youth, persons with disabilities, and other under-represented communities.  

The next frontiers include contracting commitments that incorporate higher levels of civic participation and public accountability. OGP supports this emerging work by shaping incentives, pushing for quality sustainable data, and bringing in new allies like journalists and business.


Recommendations

  • Collect higher-quality contracting data that is timely, complete and in a machine-readable format. France requires municipalities to provide free access to data regarding public contracts. Their initial success prompted submission of a second commitment to standardize their data in accordance with the OCDS. Paraguay publishes all COVID-19 emergency procurement data on its procurement platform in easily searchable forms according to the Open Contracting Data Standard.
  • Train people on how to utilize contracting data for impact and include citizen feedback loops. Ukraine launched DoZorro, a public procurement monitoring platform that enables citizens to submit feedback, including alerts of possible irregularities and violations. More than 700,000 users have flagged nearly 74,000 concerns, of which 20,000 were found to relate to actual violations.
  • Collect and share gender-disaggregated data on procurement bids, and look for opportunities to expand the public procurement market to women-owned suppliers who currently receive less than 1% of public contracts globally. Elgeyo Marakwet, Kenya is expanding procurement opportunities for youth, women, and people with disabilities, and it publishes data on the gender of government contractees.
  • Engage with stakeholders in health, infrastructure, extractive and other sectors. Malawi and Panama are applying  the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) standards.Argentina published health contracting information that included agreements signed with laboratories, open data on individual purchases, and a list of most-procured medications.

Commitments


Resources

  1. Open Contracting Fact Sheet 2023

    2023, Document, PDF

  2. Broken Links

    How can open data help shine a light on political corruption and make political systems fairer and more inclusive? How…

    2022, , Web Page

  3. Open and Sustainable Public Procurement

    his toolkit by the Open Contracting Partnership will help you to rethink sustainable public procurement driving better adoption and measurement…

    2022, Outbound Link, Web Page

  4. The New Leadership Playbook

    Nothing about the inherent nature of business dictates that irreversible environmental damage, poor labor standards and conformity in leadership ...

    2021, Outbound Link, Web Page

  5. Le Créateur d’Engagements Anti-Corruption (Français)

    Global Integrity, Open Data Charter, ILDA , AODN, et OD4D partagent 4 étapes pour générer des engagements OGP de données…

    2021, Outbound Link, Web Page

  6. The Anticorruption Commitment Creator (English)

    Global Integrity, Open Data Charter, ILDA , AODN, and OD4D share four steps to generating OGP open data commitments to…

    2021, Outbound Link, Web Page

  7. El Creador de Compromisos Anti-Corrupción (Español)

    Global Integrity, Open Data Charter, ILDA , AODN, y OD4D comparten pasos para generar compromisos OGP de datos abiertos para…

    2021, Outbound Link, Web Page

  8. Actions to Tackle Corruption

    Corruption continues to undermine democratic institutions worldwide. Without strong commitments focused on political integrity, achieving OGP’s partnership-wide goals of economic…

    2021, , Web Page

  9. Beneficial Ownership Data in Procurement

    Open Ownership outlines the main ways beneficial ownership data can improve public procurement processes and objectives and discusses some of…

    2021, Outbound Link, Web Page

  10. Los datos sobre los beneficiarios finales en el contexto de las adquisiciones

    Open Ownership delinea distintos modos en que los datos sobre los beneficiarios finales mejoran los procesos de adquisición pública y…

    2021, Outbound Link, Web Page

  11. Recommendations on Women Against Corruption for OGP Action Plans

    Transparency International shares recommendations for governments serious about tackling the impact of corruption on women and ensuring their participation in…

    2020, Outbound Link, Web Page

  12. How to Empower Women-Led Businesses and Make Public Procurement More Inclusive

    This research report by the Open Contracting Partnership and Value for Women explores the barriers facing women-led businesses in public…

    2020, Outbound Link, Web Page

  13. Open Response + Open Recovery: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Budgeting and Contracting

    As part of the Open Response + Open Recovery Digital Forum, OGP, Open Contracting Partnership, and International Budget Partnership hosted a…

    2020, , Web Page

  14. A Guide to Open Government and the Coronavirus: Public Procurement

    Procurement has become a life or death issue in many countries’ responses to the coronavirus pandemic. In the short-term, emergency…

    2020, Guidance Document, Web Page

  15. Hivos - What Does the Future Look Like When We Apply Open Contracting to Your Sector?

    Explore the impact of open contracting in the words of reformers working across different fields and regions.

    2019, Outbound Link, Web Page

  16. Global Report - Open Contracting

    Open contracting continues to gain momentum, and is on the way to becoming a global norm.

    2019, Document, PDF

  17. Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard (OC4IDS)

    Learn about the aims and key features of this new data standard, developed jointly by CoST and the Open Contracting…

    2019, Outbound Link, Web Page

  18. Gender Smart Open Contracting

    Governments spend one-fifth of their budgets buying goods and services from the private sector, but women-owned businesses supply only 1%…

    2019, Outbound Link, Web Page

  19. EITI Requirements on Contract Transparency

    Contracts, licenses and associated agreements are crucial parts of the legal framework which establish the rights, terms and obligations governing…

    2019, Outbound Link, Web Page

  20. Recommendations on Open Contracting for Open Government Partnership National Action Plans

    Transparency International provides resources for fighting corruption in public procurement in the context of OGP, trends and examples of good…

    2018, Outbound Link, Web Page

  21. Mythbusting Confidentiality in Open Contracting

    This report and website provides evidence-based arguments to help you counter arguments that you will confront as you try to…

    2018, Outbound Link, Web Page

  22. NRGI & OCP's Open Contracting for Oil, Gas and Mineral Rights

    This report shines a light on 16 global good practices that governments have used to improve transparency across the processes…

    2018, Outbound Link, Web Page

  23. Open Contracting Partnership’s Toolkit on the Open Contracting Data Standard

    Discover a suite of command-line tools for working with OCDS data.

    2018, Outbound Link, Web Page

  24. Transparent Public Procurement Rating

    The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information developed this website to provide a common standard for assessing public procurement…

    , Outbound Link, Web Page


OGP Global Report Data

The data below is drawn from the 2019 OGP Global Report. You can view and learn more about the report here.

These are members making OGP commitments to improve their performance in the respective policy area. As members that have demonstrated political commitment through OGP, the next step is ensuring that implemented commitments have maximal impact.

Key
Indicates that member has a starred commitment in this policy area.


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