Open Government Partnership New Zealand National Action Plan 2018-2020
Progress report to: April – June 2019
Commitment 12 progress report: May – June 2019
Commitment 12: Open Procurement
Lead agency: The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
Objective: To publish the data on government-awarded contracts that is currently publicly available on the Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS) as open data.
Ambition: It will be easy for people to find and access published GETS information for contracts awarded by government agencies that are subject to the Government Rules of Sourcing. This will increase the level of trust the public has in procurement as it will be possible to analyse what contracts government agencies are awarding, what the expected spend is and which businesses have been awarded contracts.
OGP values: Transparency, Accountability, Technology and Innovation
Milestones
Milestone 1
Design with Stats NZ and the public a more usable format for this data.
Start/End dates: October 2018 - June 2019
Progress: Completed
Milestone 2
Publish the results of the first milestone, for example information on what format the data will be released in and if we need to publish supporting material to help people interpret the data.
Start/End dates: July 2019 - December 2019
Milestone 3
Publish the Contract Award notices online in the agreed usable format.
Start/End dates: June 2020 - On-going
What we have been doing
- We communicated with interested open data stakeholders on progress towards the commitment. We advised them that following their feedback at our initial workshop we have revised our timeframes and we are looking to issue the first iteration of contract award notice data in October.
- In May we published a second news item on New Zealand Government Procurement’s website highlighting that we will start releasing contract award notices on a quarterly basis from October. We also continued to communicate to government agencies through direct mail and newsletters.
- In June we completed enhancements to the GETS system to improve and simplify completing contract award data for government agencies. We also provided training to agency GETS users on these changes.
- We scheduled a second workshop for July to further consult stakeholders on the commitment and gather their feedback on the format of the data to be released.
- We conducted an initial desktop review of the Open Contracting Data Standard and other applicable data standards to GETS data.
How we are including diverse voices
- By publishing contract award notices as open we are making government spending more transparent and accessible to all New Zealanders.
How we are keeping diverse communities informed
- We have been communicating with stakeholders interested in open data and plan to extend our reach through other partner networks.
What’s next?
- Further engagement and communications on improving the format that the data will be released in and progress towards the commitment.
- Confirmation of the format and supporting messages for the data to be released.
Links – Evidence of progress and milestones acheved
https://www.procurement.govt.nz/about-us/news/contract-award-data-to-be-open-from-october