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Smarter collaboration: How Mexico City delivers major projects through inclusive planning

In large public projects, like infrastructure, transport, and delivering public services like water and social programs, the difference between success and failure often comes down to how well you plan and who you involve early on. Mexico City is proving that big plans lead to better results when citizens and businesses are part of the process.

It all starts with procurement. Mexico City has devised an efficient, participatory, and transparent approach to seek input from potential suppliers and the public on draft contracting documents before a formal call to tender is announced. When a procuring entity is planning a new procurement procedure, they can use a dedicated pre-bidding module (“prebases” in Spanish, short for preliminary bidding documents module) on the city’s electronic procurement system to publish the complete text of relevant documents such as the draft specifications, details about the award process, and technical annexes. Registered suppliers, civil society organizations, and citizens can ask questions, make recommendations, and add comments at any point in the documents. Their comments are all published on the site, along with any responses from the procuring entity. 

There are several benefits to this transparent discussion. It is an efficient and cost-effective way to consult the market, it ensures a level playing field for all bidders, and allows for contradictions and potential issues to be flagged early in the procurement process. For procuring officials, the pre-bidding documents module also streamlines their workload by consolidating feedback in a single, organized platform. Instead of dealing with a flood of unstructured or inconsistent feedback from various sources, officials can prioritize key issues and ensure the right team members address them efficiently, making the whole process more manageable.

Open by design

The pre-bidding module was designed specifically for complex procedures that are highly technical or likely to have a significant impact on citizens. Seven of the city’s 90 procuring entities have used the module for 23 high-value projects to date, mainly related to public transportation, like the Metrobus, electric buses, tolls and trains (browse all projects on the web or this spreadsheet). It is built on free and open-source software meaning the technology can be adopted and adapted by other governments.

Through its Lift impact accelerator program, OCP provided technical assistance to Mexico City’s Digital Agency for Public Innovation (Agencia Digital de Innovación Pública or ADIP) in creating the tool, working with developers from GLASS, who had built other features of the e-procurement platform Tianguis Digital, an award-winning system that is powered by open contracting data.

The idea for the pre-bidding module emerged from the team’s previous collaboration supporting the Secretary of Mobility to run an open tender process for a major upgrade to the city’s bike-share service (learn more about the Ecobici project). The transparent and inclusive consultation process used for that contract allowed the city government to expand the bike network and improve the service’s technology and design, at half the operating costs of the old service.

When it came to developing the pre-bidding module, the team used a design thinking approach, incorporating user needs identified through interviews with procuring entities, suppliers, civil society organizations and citizens. They also consulted international experts, including those responsible for Ukraine’s ProZorro e-procurement system, to learn from their experience developing an open tool for discussing procurement planning documents.

Results

Key achievements of the pre-bidding module:

The contracts that seemed to attract the most public discussion to date relate to mobility projects, such as the Metrobus network. For example, 14 recommendations from suppliers and citizens during the pre-bidding consultation for bus lane cameras were incorporated into the final tender.

Beyond the current interaction between procuring units, potential suppliers, and citizens benefiting from the project, it is expected that these practices will generate other improvements, such as reducing inquiries about tender documents during the bidding process (as they were addressed during the pre-consultation stage); avoiding extensions on publication deadlines for tenders; a drop in tenders declared void or unsuccessful; and attracting more competitors (bids submitted) in tender processes. 

What’s next? 

In October 2024, use of the pre-bidding module became mandatory for Mexico City’s buyers. The City is continuing to expand its digital procurement capabilities through Tianguis Digital, the new e-procurement system which has 18 modules covering everything from planning to implementation. Previously, much of the city’s procurement was paper-based, but Tianguis Digital streamlines the entire process. The platform includes features such as Mi Tiendita Virtual, a module developed with OCP that helps small vendors from priority economic sectors to register and participate in public contracts, while the Concurso Digital module, built by GLASS, enables suppliers to easily search for bids, access documents, and submit proposals online. 

This integrated approach makes it easier for suppliers to do business with the city and for the government to manage procurement more efficiently.

Photo: Orbon Alija, iStock

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