Public procurement should be made ‘open by default’ o that citizens and businesses can have a clear public record of how public money is spent says the anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International. TI with its partners, CoST – the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative, Open Contracting Partnership (OCP), Hivos and Article19, have launched the Clean Contracting Manifesto. The campaigners say that the whole lifecycle of public procurement must be to the highest possible standards of transparency, accountability and efficiency and in the public interest.
Zoe Reiter, senior project lead at Transparency International said: “The goal is for civil society to work collectively to make public contracting accountable to citizens, as opposed to corrupt special interests, especially when it comes to infrastructure delivery.”
By 2030, close to US$6 trillion could be lost annually in the construction industry through corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency, TI warns. Not only the public lose when procurement isn’t clean, the groups argue. According to a 2013 Eurobarometer survey, more than 30 per cent of companies participating in EU public procurement say corruption prevented them from winning a contract.
TI is calling on governments and international bodies to adopt the manifesto. It has five pillars that form the core of what is needed to foster a culture of clean contracting:
Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) and monitoring systems
Independent civil society monitoring of specific projects, using tools such as an Integrity Pact
Effective and meaningful participation by affected communities in all phases of the public procurement process, including the pre-tender phase
A strong, professional and engaged civil society sector; and
A strong and credible sanctions regime.
The manifesto makes the point that public authorities, and multinational actors such as the European Commission or multilateral banks, must have effective sanctions mechanisms like debarment. It calls for public contracting information on the full procurement process from planning to implementation available as re-usable, machine-readable and free-to-use open data. It asks for sector-specific, in-depth guidance for making contracting information transparent especially around high-risk sectors such as extractives, health and infrastructure. It suggests government, business and civil society work together as a “golden triangle” to make open contracting.
To read the Manifesto in full visit https://www.transparency.org/files/content/feature/Clean_Contracting_Manifesto.pdf.
