Report October 2012 Johannesburg, South Africa

OCT20OBER 124TH 2- 26TH REPORT OCTOBER 2012 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA The high-level panel was moderated by Errol Barnett from CNN and featured the participation of (left to right) Sir John Grant from BG Group, Marinke Van Riet from Publish What You Pay, Sanjay Pradhan from the World Bank Institute, Joachim Prey from GIZ, Dinkie Dube from the Office of the Public Protector of South Africa, and Heidi Mendoza from the Commission of Audits of the Philippines. This document captures the outputs of the first global Open Contracting meeting, which took place from Octo- ber 24-26, 2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The meeting was hosted by the World Bank Institute (WBI) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (implemented by GIZ), in cooperation with Transparency International, Oxfam America, Integrity Action, the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative, and the Government of the Philippines. Over 140 representatives of governments, civil society, the private sector and multilateral organizations participated. The objectives of the meeting were as follows: • To frame, profile and position the issue of Open Contracting in the larger international debate; • To bring together a diverse group of innovative actors interested in advancing Open Contracting work around the world; • To develop the agenda and initial focus for the Open Contracting movement; and • To articulate activities and targets that will move the work of Open Contracting forward in the coming 24 months. In support of these objectives, the meeting followed an interactive format mixing plenary sessions for prac- titioner explanation and context, panel dialogues for debate, and small working group break-out sessions for further analysis and action plan generation. The working groups formed organically, in response to participant identification of challenges and opportunities. Attendees debated and further refined the Open Contracting movement agenda, building upon the work-streams identified in the Open Contracting design meeting held in May 2012. Participants grappled with issues related to the application of Open Contracting in different sectors, the significance of Open Contracting within the framework of public financial management, the role of access to information, the role of the media, how to enforce legislation, how to find innovative ways to share and package contract information in a manner that is meaningful for citizens and end users, how to best utilize technology, the challenges of coalition building, how to transform national movements into a global movement, and how to translate global norms into country level outcomes. www.open-contracting.org 1 OCTOBER 2012 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA The World Bank’s Director of Strategy and Operations for the Africa Region, Colin Bruce, offers remarks during the opening day. CONTENTS What is Open Contracting and why is it Important? ....................................... 3 Mapping the Challenges and Opportunities for Open Contracting .............................. 6 Developing Opportunities for Open Contracting and Capitalizing on Commitments ..................12 Governance and Advancing Open Contracting ...........................................14 Timeline of Targets and Next Steps: ..................................................15 Annex 1: Meeting Agenda Annex 2: Participants List www.open-contracting.org 2 OCTOBER 2012 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA WHAT IS OPEN CONTRACTING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Open Contracting is an emerging multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral movement to strengthen norms, practices and methodologies for increased transparency and accountability in public contracting along the contracting cycle, from pre-award activities through implementation. The economic footprint of public contracting is significant in every country and there are opportunities for improved disclosure and monitoring to make a real impact. “Why are we here? Because something has failed. Governments are not delivering via procurement and there is visible evidence of this – improving transparency is a way to start improving areas that affect people. It will ultimately be about how lives are changed, not ROBERT HUNJA about how much information was Open Government, WBI published.” RUEBEN LIFUKA, Transparency International www.open-contracting.org 3 OCTOBER 2012 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA “It is only through collective action and collaborative innovation that we can make progress in opening up contracting, and by doing so, safeguarding public resources and ensuring these resources are used to deliver services to citizens.” SANJAY PRADHAN WBI “Successful stakeholder engagement is a part of sustainability, is a part of being able to deliver as a successful business over the long term. And the broad issue of transparency – how you build trust and effective institutions is a key part of that engagement… Companies need consent for what they are doing.” SIR JOHN GRANT BG Group “When you do Open Contracting, when notices of bidding are posted in the website, and when awards to contractors are also visible to the citizens, then you open up the spaces for participation, and you also increase the level of accountability.” HEIDI MENDOZA Commission of Audits, Government of the Philippines [In the fight against corruption] “the world has come a long way and it is time to take the positive and encouraging elements of this experience and apply to Open Contracting.” PETER EIGEN Founding EITI Chair / Advisory Council, HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA School of Governance Meeting participants explored the implications of Open Contracting in three economic sectors of Developing Infrastructure, Delivering Services, and Extracting Natural Resources. The Developing Infrastructure group focused on the use of e-procurement systems that can link different government databases containing project information in one publicly accessible portal; the costs and benefits to public agencies implementing contract disclosure policies (such as increased number and quality of bids); and the mechanics of coalition building and citizen mobilization around public projects. The Delivering Services group surfaced such issues as the merits of governments outsourcing service provision to non-state actors in the face of constrained resources and capacity, the challenges of engaging civil society to utilize contract information once it is available, and the potential of innovative grievance mechanisms such as one in Georgia whereby citizens and bidders can halt procurement processes, incentivizing corrective actions within a reasonable period of time. The Natural Resources group discussed the recent experience of Tullow Oil agreeing to the publication of its contracts with the government of Ghana, the experience of Grupo Faro in monitoring extractive industries contracts in Ecuador, and the relationship between Open Contracting and other initiatives, including the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the notion of Free Prior and Informed Consent. Given the proliferation of online tools for promoting connectedness, dialogue and accountability, the meeting surfaced a number of questions around effective ways to use ICT to facilitate Open Contracting via cross sector engagement, such as: What is the connection between Open Contracting and open government? What is the role of technology in Open Contracting? And, what really needs to happen if we are to advance this agenda? www.open-contracting.org 4 OCTOBER 2012 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Participants engage in a conversation about Open Contracting and natural resources. “Two actors have a formalized relationship- the Government and contractors. Open government plays a role by introducing the third actor – the citizen who benefits from the tender. We need to make a better connection between tender and citizen. This is not to mean they [citizens] need to be there for every part of process. Citizens know the level of quality. Merging Open Government with Open Contracting is about putting citizens in the process, in the loop, to see whether it was fair and effective.” CHRIS ALBON Frontline:SMS “Government expresses itself through contracts. The speeches are just speeches, but the rubber hits the road when a speech is materialized through a procurement decision.” MARÍA MARGARITA ZULETA National Agency of Procurement and Public Contracts, Colombia “We will get Open Contracting right if we make the information useful. That is how we can change the world. It’s critical we get the contract information in a low fiction form. This should allow CSOs to concentrate on understanding whether the contracts are delivered. Low friction contract data is critical to CSOs being able to carry out effective monitoring and focus on bettering citizens lives. We can build a million tools to do this; we need to build few and for casual users, not for people who have the luxury of time.” CHRIS TAGGART Open Corporates www.open-contracting.org 5 OCTOBER 2012 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA MAPPING THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR OPEN CONTRACTING Open Contracting exists within the context of several trends towards Open Data and Open Government, and while there are many challenges to implementation, there are also many opportunities. CURRENT ECOLOGY Open Government Partnership International Aid Partnership Medicines Transparency Open Budget Alliance Initiative Open Aid International Aid Open Transparency Initiative Development Global Initiative on Fiscal Open Transparency Government Construction Sector Transparency

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