procurement transparency monitor

What problem are you solving?:

Slovenia has put into place laws and procedures to ensure transparent operation of public tendering and procurement processes. Unfortunately, this does not appear to function very well. Among expert observers, there is widely held belief that abuse is endemic, if not universal. On a superficial level, procedures seem to be maintained, but behind the facade, there does not seem to be a public procurement without a previously agreed outcome. Consequently, procurement tenders frequently specify absurd requirements, unrealistic deadlines, unnecessary documentation etc. Foreign bidders have already given up, as they have no chance of actually winning such tenders.

Corruption is definitely a large part of this problem, but there is also an acute lack of knowledge and an underdeveloped business culture that needs to be dealt with.

Describe your idea:

The idea is to set up a site, which will be an open forum to discuss published public tenders. Experts and the public will participate in dissecting tender requirements, highlighting best and worst practices and encouraging improvements. The site would track the procedure from beginning to end, including the complaint and implementation phases. It will also gather statistical information. The goal is to end up with transparency indexes for individual agencies and departments, both to encourage good work as well as to shame offenders. It is hoped that the site would eventually attract the attention of the press and become an influential source of information on the state of public tendering in the country.

By highlighting this problem, we hope to open a public discussion and push for more transparency in this area. We aim to encourage people to seek a general solution, based on fairness and merit which would benefit society, instead of just seeking to get around a flawed system.

What country will this operate in?: Slovenia

Who are you?:

I am an IT professional with 30 years experience in the field. Having participated on both sides of the public tendering process for many years, I would very much like to help push towards a more open and transparent approach compared to current practices in our country. I also have the necessary technical background and propose that the site be built using the Liferay open source portal platform.

1 Comment

  1. I think this is a great idea since it would bring more visibility in areas of public tenders and contests. Why this is important? It’s because it will serve the public information flow which will help in discovering the fraud in tender procedures. That is quite common for all post socialist societies in which politicians abuse their positions eliminating all possible concurrences, developing monopoly, corruption and the air of “untouchables” – getting rich legally on corrupted way.

    I would like this project to happen since it could bring more fair opportunities for all participants on the free market and it could become a common tool for all other countries suffering from the same problems.