The first ever Global Conference on Open Contracting held in Johannesburg, South Africa from October 23-26, 2012 has concluded
that accessing contract documents is very important for the realization of value for money in public contracting. The hosted by the
World Bank Institute 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, the government of the Philippines.
It aimed at
- Profiling and positioning the issue of open contracting in the larger international debate
- Bringing together a diverse group of innovative actors interested in advancing Open Contracting work around the world
- Developing the agenda and initial focus for the Open Contracting movement – building on and refining the insights from the design meeting
The conference confirmed that open contracting strengthens norms, practices and methodologies for increased transparency in public contracting. It also established that open contracting provides benefits for everyone by:
- generate and allocate public assets more efficiently
- enabling citizen participation for more accountable contract outcomes
- ensure a level-playing field for the private sector and better business environment.
Government, industry and civil society have clear roles and responsibilities to attain those benefits.
The conference agreed to strengthen access to information in public contracting by utilizing existing frameworks such as the Open Government Partnership (OGP). In this regard effort will be made to ensure that the adoption and effective implementation of national access to information laws as well as open contracting principles will be part of OGP commitments.
