Open Contracting Data Standard
An introduction
Introductions
Why Open Contracting?
A range of benficiaries
Government:
seeking value
for money
Corruption hunter:
detecting fraud
& corruption
SMEs:
competing for public
contracts
CSOs:
monitoring service
delivery
Why focus on contracting data?
Detecting patterns
Deeper insights
Linking aid data and contract register for greater project-level insight
Contracting analytics
http://procurement-analytics.org/
Contracting analytics
https://www.contrataciones.gov.py/datos/visualizaciones
Tools for contractors
But:
- Many current data-driven examples rely on proprietary data-sharing;
- Most existing tools are custom-build for one particular country or context;
- Where data is available, quality is often low;
- Many countries lack any good quality published procurement data, or only have data on one stage of the process;
This is where OCDS comes in...
Interoperability
Quality
The Open Contracting Data Standard
A brief history
Built around data supply...
...and user need
Resulting in...
Field & identifier specifications
What to publish, and how to identify it consistently across the whole contracting process
JSON schema & flattened serialisations
How to publish data so that it can be read by different systems, and converted into accessible formats for different users.
Publishing patterns
Stepping stones towards best practices for sharing data on the web: improving usability.
The whole contracting process:
A worked example
1) Planning
2) Tender / formation
3) Enquiries
4) Award
5) Contract
6) Progress update
7) Contract ammendment
8) Completion
The pieces...
OCDS brings together data & documents from all stages of the contracting process
The contracting process
Planning
Tender/ formation
Award
Contract
Implementation
The contracting record
Releases and records
- Real-time notices and updates;
- As much information as the publishing system can share;
- Linked to a contracting process ID;
- Summarising the current state of the contracting process;
- Bringing together data from different systems;
- Providing change history;
Planning
Tender
Tender amendment
Award
Releases and records
Format & schema
Flat serialisation
Joining it up
OCID
Contracting process identifier
- Look for existing identifiers that join up the whole contracting process
Organisation identifiers
Master Road Builders Ltd
MRB Ltd
master road builders limited
MASTER ROAD BUILDERS LTD.
Maestro Camino Constructores Ltd
Or
GB-COH - 12345678
Implementation process
Basic
Publication Policy
Intermediate
Advanced
Versioned | Persistence | URIs
Implementation approaches
-
Map existing information sources
What data do you have now? What data that users demand is missing?
-
Identify the identifiers
Can you identify a whole contracting process?
-
Engage users
Understand the needs of your user community, and what they can bring to implementation.
-
Choose architecture
Centralised vs. distributed
- Publish & improve
Architectures
Central
Database
API
Release & Records
XLS Data Dumps: Generated periodically for data portal
Planning
spreadsheet
Procurement
database
Contract
management
system
Conversion process
API
Releases
Mapping from existing API
Middle layer
Maintaining index of releases & generating records (inc. version history)
XLS Data Dumps
API & Visualisation
Government run
Independently administered
Implementation
examples
UK Government
(Work in progress)
Input API
Local
tender
systems
EU
TED
UK Government
(Work in progress)
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/getOCDS?noticeId={ID}
OCDS
Release
Output
Third party platform to aggregate into records
http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/vuesurlescontrats/
Montreal
Mexico City: OCP Sharing & Learning project
1. Mapping existing data systems;
2. Planning updates to SAP platform;
3. Creating module to publish data
4. Working with civil society data users
Documentation and support
http://ocds.open-contracting.org
Help-desk:
data@open-contracting.org
- Questions?
- Supporting data validation
- Information about tools
- Standard updates
Discussion list:
standard-discuss@open-contracting.org
- Community updates
- Tool updates
- Standard news & upgrades
http://github.com/open-contracting/
Inside the data
- Line items
- Documents
- Values
- Milestones
- Dates
- Locations
- Organisations
- External links
Contracting process identifier
OCID
Globally unique identifier
Used in each release for a contracting process
ocds-{prefix}-{identifier from internal systems}
Assigned by
the helpdesk
Identified by
surveying your own systems
Organisation identifiers
Master Road Builders Ltd
MRB Ltd
master road builders limited
MASTER ROAD BUILDERS LTD.
Maestro Camino Constructores Ltd
Or
GB-COH - 12345678
From organisation registration agency codelist
Registered company number
Documents & notices
Line items
Description
Quantity
Classifications
Location information
Extension: coming in version 1.1
Delivery address
Street address for geocoding
Delivery locations
gazetteer, points and polygons
Joined up data
Link out to other open datasets
Company register
Project registers
Budget data
Goods & services classifications
Etc.
Data walkthrough
Releases
- All releases are contained within a package;
- Packages can contain 1..n releases;
- Packages contain key meta-data;
Releases
Identifiers
Release Tag
Organisation identifier block
Address & contact point block
Releases
Planning
Planning: budget
Planning: documents
Planning: anticipated tender details
Tender release: line items
Classification block
Quantities
Tender release: amounts
Tender release: process
Tender release: other elements
Tender amendment
Award release: overview
- Awards is an array;
- Awards should be matched with contracts;
- Blocks repeated (e.g. items) to handle changes between tender and award;
Award release: detail
Award status
Suppliers array
Providing all available IDs
Contract period
Contract release
Reference back to award
Contract text
Implementation release
- Implementation data belongs with the related contract block;
- Allows progress to be expressed through documents, milestones and transactions
Implementation transactions
