Open Contracting

What Is Open Data And Open Contracting?

Open contracting and open data focuses on making public procurement more transparent and accountable by publicising the contracts between the government and suppliers, while also providing citizens with more access to the contracts’ data in a machine-readable format known as the Open Contracting and Data Standards (OCDS) which can help in making informed decisions. The OCDS is premised on the fact that we can prevent some of the expensive corruption and prosecutions as well as inefficiencies across the procurement value chain by deploying data standards that enable us link various data from the budget, to procurement and ultimately to public services in a timely way.

Why is Open Contracting important?

  • Promote transparency, accountability, and fairness in the procurement process
  • Benefits suppliers as they (suppliers) have greater visibility into the procurement process and can better understand the needs of PDEs. This can lead to more targeted bids and greater opportunities to win contracts.
  • By making procurement-related information easily accessible to the public and using data analytics tools to make data-driven decisions, the Malawian government can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the procurement process.

Open Contracting Data Standards (OCDS)

Procurement-related data is made available in a machine-readable format. This data can be used in statistics, surveys, and other information related projects to the operations of the government or suppliers. This data can also be used to inform policy decisions, as well as to hold governments and suppliers accountable for their actions. Additionally, OCDS can be used to create new products and services, as well as to identify trends and patterns in the data provisions.