Open Contracting and Latin America’s Corruption Fight

As countries across Latin America work to improve transparency and accountability, public contracts—everything from infrastructure to public procurement—are a perpetual weakness. Open Contracting is a set of disclosure tools that use timely, publicly-accessible open data about contracts to increase competition, inform smarter decision-making, and foster public integrity. Paraguay has been a regional leader in embracing and implementing open contracting principles. How is its experience instructive for other countries? How can open contracting and other transparency tools help make Latin American governments more accountable and responsive? What are the economic benefits of open contracting? What are the obstacles to implementation and what other steps are needed to effectively identify, prosecute, and prevent corruption? 

The Inter-American Dialogue and the Open Contracting Partnership are pleased to host an open discussion on the merits and challenges of open contracting and other public transparency initiatives, focusing on the Paraguayan example in regional context.

Follow this event on Twitter at #OCPDialogue, @opencontracting, and @The_Dialogue.

Opening Remarks

Carlos Fernández

President of the Central Bank of Paraguay (@cgfernandezv)

Speakers

Lea Giménez

Minister of Finance of Paraguay (@lea_g_d)

Georg Neumann

Senior Manager, Communications & Engagement, Open Contracting Partnership (@georg_neu)

Moderator

Michael Camilleri

Director, Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program, Inter-American Dialogue (@camillerimj)