Open Contracting Data Standard

The Open Contracting Data Standard is a standards development initiative issued by the Omidyar Network and the World Bank which commenced in November 2014. It sets out the key documents and data which should be published at each stage of the process of letting a contract for the procurement of goods and services for the public sector. Adoption of the standard requires publishers to release data under an open license, because "publishing data under an open license is an important part of open contracting. Without this, restrictions on re-use can prevent many of the important use cases for open contracting information being realized."[1] Publishers are encouraged to use a scale of publishing complexity, from basic which features just tender notices, to advanced and extended data, which features contract award notices, contract details and persistent URIs.[2]

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)
Filename extension
.json
Type codeTEXT
Developed byOpen Contracting Partnership
Initial release29 July 2015; 9 years ago (2015-07-29)
Latest release
1.1.5
20 August 2020; 4 years ago (2020-08-20)
Type of formatPublic contracts format
Extended fromJSON
StandardDe facto standard
Open format?Yes, Apache License
Free format?Yes
Websitestandard.open-contracting.org

The Open Contracting Partnership, a not for profit organisation promoting openness in contracting, argues that the use of the standard will reduce costs,[3] create more competitive contracting, and prevent fraud and corruption.[4][5]

Origins

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An early version 1.0 was released in July 2015 [6] and version 1.1 was being developed in Q 3 and 4 2015.[citation needed] OCDS was designed with a focus on public procurement of goods, works and services, but it can be extended for use in other contexts. Extensions for Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and Extractives concessions are under development.[7]

Implementation

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Pilot implementations are underway in the following countries:

Colombia, Costa Rica and Paraguay have also expressed interest in adopting the standard.[11]

Private sector companies using the standard:

See also

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Project website: http://standard.open-contracting.org

References

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  1. ^ Open Contracting Data Standard: Publish, text reproduced under Apache License, Version 2.0, accessed 6 February 2021. Original states that "publishing data under an open licenses [sic] is ..."
  2. ^ "Assessing data quality — Open Contracting Data Standard 1.1.5 documentation".
  3. ^ "Blog - Why good procurement data does more than fight corruption". 12 August 2016.
  4. ^ "Assessing data quality — Open Contracting Data Standard 1.1.5 documentation".
  5. ^ "Blog - Why the Open Contracting Data Standard matters". 12 January 2016.
  6. ^ OCDS, History of OCDS, accessed 19 May 2016
  7. ^ OCDS, Getting started, accessed 19 May 2016
  8. ^ UK Open Government National Action Plan 2016-18 published 12 May 2016, accessed 18 May 2016
  9. ^ Cabinet Office, Government contracts to be open to public for the first time, published 12 May 2016, accessed 6 February 2021
  10. ^ Stein, Mara Lemos. "Ukraine Looks to Unmask Corruption with ProZorro E-Procurement". WSJ. Retrieved 2017-01-10.
  11. ^ World Bank, Open Contracting Data Standard: Better Data for Better Decisions, published 12 April 2014, accessed 19 May 2016
  12. ^ https://openopps.com/about/#faqs
  13. ^ "AI integrations - Prozorro_AI library". Ocds Analytics Saas.