I had an ‘aha moment’ the other day about the number of contracts that CSOs are supposed to monitor in a country like the Philippines.

I was meeting with Government Procurement Policy Board - Technical Support Office (GPPB-TSO) in Manila. They were showing me PhilGEPS, a single portal that serves as the primary source of information on all government procurement and publishes contracts.

Rosa Maria Clemente, Executive Director of PhilGEPS explained: “On average there are 1000*…

I have been spending more time in Asia lately. Currently I am in Manila. The picture is Manila Bay on a rainy day. Meeting with CSOs here that are working on open contracting (i.e. contract transparency and monitoring), made me wonder about what’s next on the road to open contracting?

The Philippines is…

“Check My School” (checkmyschool.org) is an interactive platform and a comprehensive database on the government's education services that allows parents, students and educators in the Philippines to monitor school funding and report on any issues, such as teacher absence or misuse of funds. The project was launched by the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability East Asia and the Pacific…

Government procurement is estimated to account for between 14 to 20 percent of annual GDP -- roughly $1 trillion globally. Corruption can add 15-25 percent to the cost of procurement affecting livelihoods and threatening governments’ credibility.—Transparency International- USA…

Check out copy of the powerpoint presentation, Citizens' monitoring of procurement contract implementation: lessons from the Philippines.

I presented this material at the East African Contract Monitoring Meeting in Kampala, Uganda, last 31 May 2011. It discussed the social accountability…