“The UK indicated its support of the principles behind open contracting in the Open Government Partnership statement but the standard has only just been created so it wouldn’t be very surprising if it hadn’t implemented it,” Tennison explained.
The OCDS was launched globally on 18 November to promote government transparency and ensure governments consistently publish contracting data.
At the time of launch, the UK government had not confirmed if or when they would be adopting the standard.
However, this should not be regarded as a dismissal Tennison stressed: “There’s a distinction between open contracting as a concept and the standard for publishing some data about contracts.”
She continued: “Every country moves at its own pace – it’s not like a switch is flicked and suddenly everyone is publishing like this!”
Tennison told CSW that rather than expecting countries to sign up immediately, what is important is “a long-term gradual move towards the principles of open contracting and the adoption of the standard [internationally]”.