Page 139 - Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities - A U4SSC deliverable

Summary

• Rooting out corruption depends on access to open data and an engaged public.

• Bringing data together from different levels of government, making it accessible, comparable
and useful in combating corruption, can be a challenge.
• A coordinated national approach can help sub-national governments, which often lack the
necessary skills and resources, to provide data to a national platform.

The problem

The General Law of the National Anti-Corruption System (NACS Law) puts in place obligations
on procurement transparency for the whole country; however, as a Federal Republic, much of
Mexico’s public sector spending is devolved to the 32 sovereign, autonomous states and federal
entities. The law requires that each state put in place systems to provide local procurement data to
the national platform; however, obtaining quality data from each of Mexico’s 32 states, institutions
and autonomous bodies has been one of the biggest challenges for the national platform team.

As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) compendium of good
practices on the use of open data for anti-corruptionsays:

“Open data can help prevent and tackle corruption by shedding light on government activities,
decisions, and expenditures, and by increasing levels of accountability, allowing citizens and
government to better monitor the flow and use of public money”

For example, to stop a corrupt official who has been debarred in one state from finding a job in
another (as currently happens in Mexico), the national platform requires that all states provide data
on debarred civil servants and companies. Currently only the Federal Government, the State of
Mexico and Sonora are providing this information.

The approach

The National Digital Platform (Plataforma Digital Nacional – PDN) enables key information to be
gathered, consulted and cross-examined by the National Anti-Corruption System (Sistema Nacional
Anticorrupción) to prevent, investigate and sanction corruption from all levels of government.

The PDN, which is developed and administered by the National Anti-corruption System Secretariat
(SESNA), aims to populate six datasets from across federal and state government institutions and
make them publicly accessible. The six datasets (referred to as “Systems”) are:

• assets, conflict-of-interest, and tax declarations (“System 1”)

• public officials involved in public procurement contracts (“System 2”)

• sanctioned public officials and individuals (“System 3”)

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