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The Open Contracting Data Standard & the EU:

Current Progress & Future Impact

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Agenda:

  1. What is the OCDS and why was it created?

  • How does OCDS add value in the EU context

  • How does OCDS support electronic procurement & Contract Registers

  • Live Demo: Use Real OCDS Data from the UK

  • Resources, Tools & Support

Today’s Goal:

Understand how Open Contracting builds on EU Procurement Directives & Data Infrastructure to help deliver better outcomes

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Public Contracting is often inefficient, mismanaged, and vulnerable to corruption

Why did we need a global data standard for public contracting?

9.5 Trillion USD per year

  • Not enough information
  • Siloed information
  • Unstandardized and

Unstructured information

Research & Monitoring = difficult

Tools & methodologies = expensive & bespoke

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What is Open Contracting overall?

1.

Set policy goals for public contracting. Establishing performance indicators for the procurement process and contract implementation (efficiency, effectiveness, and other policy priorities - environment, inclusion).

2.

Publish complete and timely records as machine readable open data.

Data and documents are often siloed in different systems and institutions. It is important to bring information together into contracting records from planning to contract completion so you can search and filter for the insights you need!

3.

Get people involved.

Consultation and monitoring are important opportunities for business and civil society to help shape better outcomes -- particularly during project planning.

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EU procurement strategy

The EU Procurement Strategy promotes:

  • access to markets, especially for SMEs�
  • uptake of strategic procurement (green, socially responsible and innovative)�
  • transparency and accountability through better data management and publication.

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EU procurement strategy

The EU Procurement Strategy promotes:

  • access to markets, especially for SMEs�
  • uptake of strategic procurement (green, socially responsible and innovative)�
  • transparency and accountability through better data management and publication.

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EU single market strategy

The EU Single Market Strategy reinforces the objectives of the procurement strategy and adds the importance of:

  • Competition�
  • Efficiency�
  • Using innovative technologies to improve procurement management.

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Contract registers

The European Commission promotes contract registers as good practice for managing and publishing data on public contracts and defines contract registers as follows:

“repositories of information and data on all public contracts awarded under the national public procurement legal framework.

CRs should contain information of the complete life cycle of the contract (planning, pre-awarding, and post-awarding).”

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OCDS & Contract Registers

  • OCDS enables Contract Registers

  • OCDS used in Contract Register in UK and Portugal (forthcoming)
  • CEF OCDS projects: Finland, Italy, Sicily
  • Guidance on OCDS in contract registers prepared by the OCP

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Contract registers

OCDS recommends data to disclose from each stage of the contracting process and can be used to integrate data from multiple systems

e-procurement system

OCDS-based contract register

Data disclosure

Reusable tools and methodologies

Analysis

Monitoring

Re-use

Contract management system

e-invoicing system

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OCDS and e-procurement

OCDS is not an e-procurement system, it’s a standard for the disclosure of data...

e-procurement system

Tender creation

Bid submission

Bid evaluation

Vendor management

Contract award

and more…

OCDS

Data disclosure

Reusable tools and methodologies

Analysis

Monitoring

Use

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OCDS and e-procurement

...however, mapping against OCDS can help make sure that systems are collecting all the data required for disclosure.

e-procurement system

Tender creation

Bid submission

Bid evaluation

Vendor management

Contract award

and more…

OCDS

Data disclosure

Reusable tools and methodologies

Analysis

Monitoring

Use

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TED and OCDS

The OCDS for the EU profile provides a mapping between OCDS and each field and form in TED.

TED <-> OCDS

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Case study: UK

Background

  • Highly decentralised systems for both central and local government�
  • Individual agencies responsible for own TED submissions�
  • Central noticing system, Contracts Finder, but with poor compliance

2016 OGP commitment

To implement the Open Contracting Data Standard in the Crown Commercial Service’s operations by October 2016;

We will also begin applying this approach to major infrastructure projects, starting with High Speed Two, and rolling out OCDS across government thereafter.

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Case study: UK

The journey so far

  1. Multi-stakeholder steering group established
  2. Contracts Finder OCDS export developed
  3. Open buyer and supplier IDs collected and published

The future

  • Improving compliance, linking contracts and spend, local implementations
  • Publishing OCDS converted from TED XML

2018 OGP Commitments (draft)

Improve compliance, coverage and quality of publication to Contracts Finder so that all above threshold public contracts can be tracked from planning to final spending.

Creating a coalition of partners to promote implementation, accessibility and use of open contracting at the local level...

...encourage local authorities to publish all of the data they can

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Case study: France

2015 OGP commitment

• Standardize the format of data of public call for tenders

• Release in open data the Official Bulletin of Public Contract Declarations (BOAMP) or those from other publication entities

• Encourage increased publicity of awarded public tenders

Background

  • Central e-procurement system used by ~80% of central government agencies�
  • 200+ decentralised systems used by local government agencies

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Case study: France

2018 OGP Commitment

Open publication of essential data on public procurement, in compliance with OCDS and including all stakeholders.

Journey so far

  • Decree defining fields, structure and format for data�
  • Ministry of Finance added essential data to existing data flow from local entities to central repository

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Ukraine: competition and value for money

ProZorro provides a central database of procurement opportunities.

From January 2015 to March 2017 OCP evaluation shows:

  • Average number of bids per tender: ⇧15%
  • Average unique suppliers per procuring entity: ⇧45%
  • Average final cost vs. estimated cost: ⇩9.7%

Higher competition leading to 9.7% reduction in cost offers significant savings against the 45% of national budget spent through procurement.

Timely publication of tender opportunities can increase competition.

OCDS data allows comparison of tender/value and awards/value to analyse savings. Clear supplier identifiers assist competition analysis. When items are classified, and units specified, then item level price comparisons across agencies can also be made.

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Paraguay: value for money

  • Students monitoring procurement effectiveness
  • Payment delays to contractors costing 142 million USD per year
  • Documented savings
  • Reduction in contract amendments

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Open Contracting

in Kyrgyz Republic

Problem: Procurers apparently prefer to use a non-competitive, non-transparent method for low-value procurement. The alternative, competitive method is slow & bureaucratic. This creates barriers for small & medium enterprises, which are crucial to the country’s transition to a market economy.

Solution: Implement open contracting to create a fairer, level playing field for smaller companies to win government contracts.

Progress so far:

  • OCDS-compliant platform Zakupki.gov.kg launched – data covers tender, award & contract stages
  • Internal business intelligence tool developed & used by Finance Ministry & Chamber of Accounts
  • New e-catalogue procedure to simplify low-value procurement & increase efficiency introduced
  • Mobile app Tenderbot developed by media enterprise to alert suppliers to upcoming opportunities

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Demonstration Dashboard: �How can we use the data?

I asked Camila to look at UK OCDS data and tell me:

  • Which companies are winning the most infrastructure contracts? How many are SMEs?

  • How much more are these contracts costing than their original award value?

  • What percentage of these contracts are delayed?

Camila, Lead Data Analyst

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Dashboard Exercise:

What can data tell us?

URL: https://bit.ly/2mAVcpL

This dashboard uses contracting data from the United Kingdom, published using the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS). It includes information about completed tenders and awards related to work procurement (construction, infrastructure, etc) from 2015 to 2019.

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AFGHANISTAN | AUSTRALIA | BUENOS AIRES |

CANADA | CHILE | COLOMBIA | COSTA RICA | ECUADOR| ETHIOPIA | FRANCE | GEORGIA | GUATEMALA | HONDURAS | KENYA | KOSOVO | KYRGYZSTAN | LITHUANIA | MONTREAL | MESSINA | MEXICO CITY | MOLDOVA | NETHERLANDS |NEW SOUTH WALES | NIGERIA | PARIS | PANAMA | PARAGUAY | PORTUGAL | PHILIPPINES |

SCOTLAND | TUNISIA UGANDA | UK | UKRAINE | URUGUAY | VIETNAM | ZAMBIA

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  • Detailed OCDS implementation guidance, mapping templates and tools: https://www.open-contracting.org/implement/#/2

  • Research and guidance on confidentiality: http://mythbusting.open-contracting.org

  • OCDS Data Review Tool:

http://standard.open-contracting.org/review/

  • Guidance and tools for data use and monitoring (including

calculation of MAPS indicators): https://www.open-contracting.org/implement/#/5

  • Free global Helpdesk: write to us at data@open-contracting.org

GETTING STARTED!

resource:

Mapping template