Global Principles

The Open Contracting Global Principles gather norms and best practices for disclosure and participation in public procurement. They serve as a guide to advance open contracting around the world.

The principles were developed in a collaborative process involving nearly 200 members the open contracting community from government, private sector, civil society, donor organizations, and international financial institutions.

We want to make sure that these principles evolve to keep the pace of current practice and our partners’ aspirations. We welcome questions, comments, and feedback.

Preamble

These Principles reflect the belief that increased disclosure and participation in public contracting will have the effects of making contracting more competitive and fair, improving contract performance, and securing development outcomes. While recognizing that legitimate needs for confidentiality may justify exemptions in exceptional circumstances, these Principles are intended to guide governments and other stakeholders to affirmatively disclose documents and information related to public contracting in a manner that enables meaningful understanding, effective monitoring, efficient performance, and accountability for outcomes. These Principles are to be adapted to sector-specific and local contexts and are complementary to sector-based transparency initiatives and global open government movements.

Affirmative Disclosure

1. Governments shall recognize the right of the public to access information related to the formation, award, execution, performance, and completion of public contracts.
2. Public contracting shall be conducted in a transparent and equitable manner, in accordance with publicly disclosed rules that explain the functioning of the process, including policies regarding disclosure.
3. Governments shall require the timely, current, and routine publication of enough information about the formation, award, execution, performance, and completion of public contracts to enable the public, including media and civil society, to understand and monitor as a safeguard against inefficient, ineffective, or corrupt use of public resources. This would require affirmative disclosure of:
   1. Contracts, including licenses, concessions, permits, grants or any other document exchanging public goods, assets, or resources (including all annexes, schedules and documents incorporated by reference) and any amendments thereto;
   2. Related pre-studies, bid documents, performance evaluations, guarantees, and auditing reports.
   3. Information concerning contract formation, including:
      • The planning process of the procurement;
      • The method of procurement or award and the justification thereof;
      • The scope and specifications for each contract;
      • The criteria for evaluation and selection;
      • The bidders or participants in the process, their validation documents, and any procedural exemptions for which they qualify;
      • Any conflicts of interest uncovered or debarments issued;
      • The results of the evaluation, including the justification for the award; and
      • The identity of the contract recipient and any statements of beneficial ownership provided;
   4. Information related to performance and completion of public contracts, including information regarding subcontracting arrangements, such as:
      • General schedules, including major milestones in execution, and any changes thereto;
      • Status of implementation against milestones;
      • Dates and amounts of stage payments made or received (against total amount) and the source of those payments;
      • Service delivery and pricing;
      • Arrangements for ending contracts;
      • Final settlements and responsibilities;
      • Risk assessments, including environmental and social impact assessments;
      • Assessments of assets and liabilities of government related to the contract;
      • Provisions in place to ensure appropriate management of ongoing risks and liabilities; and
      • Appropriate financial information regarding revenues and expenditures, such as time and cost overruns, if any.
4. Governments shall develop systems to collect, manage, simplify and publish contracting data regarding the formation, award, execution, performance and completion of public contracts in an open and structured format, in accordance with the Open Contracting Data Standards as they are developed, in a user-friendly and searchable manner.
5. Contracting information made available to the public shall be as complete as possible, with any exceptions or limitations narrowly defined by law, ensuring that citizens have effective access to recourse in instances where access to this information is in dispute.
6. Contracting parties, including international financial institutions, shall support disclosure in future contracting by precluding confidentiality clauses, drafting confidentiality narrowly to cover only permissible limited exemptions, or including provisions within the contractual terms and conditions to allow for the contract and related information to be published.

Participation, Monitoring, and Oversight

1. Governments shall recognize the right of the public to participate in the oversight of the formation, award, execution, performance, and completion of public contracts.
2. Governments shall foster an enabling environment, which may include legislation, that recognizes, promotes, protects, and creates opportunities for public consultation and monitoring of public contracting, from the planning stage to the completion of contractual obligations.
3. Governments shall work together with the private sector, donors, and civil society to build the capacities of all relevant stakeholders to understand, monitor and improve public contracting and to create sustainable funding mechanisms to support participatory public contracting.
4. Governments have a duty to ensure oversight authorities, including parliaments, audit institutions, and implementing agencies, to access and utilize disclosed information, acknowledge and act upon citizen feedback, and encourage dialogue and consultations between contracting parties and civil society organizations in order to improve the quality of contracting outcomes.
5. With regard to individual contracts of significant impact, contracting parties should craft strategies for citizen consultation and engagement in the management of the contract.