The first thing to admit is that the title of this post might be a bit misleading. While in the last few months Sunlight was indeed busy researching procurement transparency on many different levels, we’ve never had the intention (or the power) to do holistic international research on procurement transparency, nor did we want to rank countries based on their performance. This would have been an endless - and probably pointless - effort. Our motive behind mapping the global landscape of procurement disclosure trends was to find best practices, powerful online tools and also to gain inspiration for Sunlight’s recently released open data guidelines for procurements.
Continue readingThe State of Local Procurement
This summer, Code for America, Omidyar Network, and the Sunlight Foundation joined forces to investigate municipal procurement trends, best practices, and potential areas of improvement across the country with a Local Government Procurement Survey.
The survey yielded 31 total responses, representing a total of 28 cities and counties, ranging in population from 13,881 to 2.7 million and hailing from every region of the continental United States. The majority of respondents (93%) were government employees working with or in the purchasing department.
The Local Government Procurement Survey asked cities about procurement process data disclosure, the formal and informal procurement process for IT contracts, and what challenges existed in their current procurement system. Check out more details on our initial results below.
Continue readingLocal Government Procurement: How Does Your City Stack Up?
The Sunlight Foundation, Code for America, and Omidyar Network are joining forces to investigate municipal procurement trends, best practices, and... View Article
Continue readingAnnouncing a New Procurement Initiative
Today we’re excited to announce an expansion of our work in the area of government procurement. Sunlight has covered procurement... View Article
Continue readingTestifying Before Full House Oversight Committee on Federal Spending Transparency
Tomorrow morning I will be testifying before the full House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the Sunlight Foundation’s work... View Article
Continue readingTestifying Before House Committee on Clearspending
This morning I testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Technology and Information Policy about... View Article
Continue readingDisclosing your sister…
When I was at the Center for Public Integrity, we once asked the Pentagon for some financial disclosure forms and were told that yes, they had the forms on file, but no, we couldn't see them, because these disclosures were not to be dislcosed to the public. This "kissing your sister" form of disclosure, as I thought of it then, came to mind as I read some of the disclosure provisions in the Executive Refrom Act, particularly those that call for federal procurement officials to disclose all job offers made to them or their family members by contractors (see page 13 of the PDF).
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