Public Contracts are Meant to be Open: Kosovo and its Open Contracting Initiative
How open contracting is being received by Kosovo institutions
Kosovo, a developing country with a territory of 10.9 thousand sq. km[1] located in the Southeastern part of Europe. A small state with a population around 1.8 million[2], the youngest one in Europe, with an average age of 28. A state with an unemployment rate of around 30%. Considering all the barriers for an effective development of the country, Kosovan youngsters continue to keep on going by working with pure dedication and commitment. Kosovo, a small country with big dreams.
Open Contracting Data Standards have found a home also in Kosovo, more specifically, in two municipalities: in the capital of Kosovo, Prishtina and in the Municipality of Lipjan. The ‘Open Contracts’ platform established in these municipalities represents one of a kind technology for Kosovo, implemented by Open Data Kosovo and technically supported by Open Contracting Partnership. Nevertheless, such a platform has been welcomed with great enthusiasm by both the municipality officials and the wider public.
To begin with, Prishtina’s Deputy Mayor Muhedin Nushi, and Lipjan’s Deputy Mayor Diamant Bytyqi have cited effective management, cost- and time-efficiency as some of the positive attributes of the ‘Open Contracts’ platform for the internal processes of the Municipality. While , simultaneously Mr. Nushi identified substantial decrease of the number of articles in online portals and newspapers due to the radical transparency and easy access of the contracts offered by such a platform. In comparison, such process would have taken 2–4 weeks to be completed through traditional procedures. In turn, leaving great room for discussion and misinformation.
In this sense, Lipjan’s Deputy Mayor Bytyqi emphasized the importance of data such as when the contract expires, current status of the contract, monetary value of contract amongst others as factors that have substantially increased the transparency of the Municipality. In other words, such a platform has strengthened the relationship between the Municipality and the public due to its availability to a wider audience, easier detection of corrupt activities as well as due to the higher trust in the integrity of the procurement process.
Furthermore, internally speaking, Mr. Nushi has cited that such a platform has also helped the Municipality officials take their time and work more on other projects. Whereas, Mr. Bytyqi specifically mentioned that procurement officials and communication officials have welcomed this platform since it has helped them deal with the numerous requests for access in different contracts. Before the implementation of the platform, many Municipality workers had to constantly address the citizens requests to enable their access to the signed contracts but, with the Open Contracts Platform the worker’s dedication to address such concerns has immensely decreased, which created more space for the Municipality workers to focus their dedication on other important projects which bring the Municipality in a higher level.
In addition, both, Mr. Nushi and Mr. Bytyqi, have cited that such a platform has been hugely welcomed by economic operators as well. As Mr. Bytyqi stated, economic operators are more and more demanding transparency throughout the entire procurement process. Thus, the Open Contracts platform has delivered just that. Moreover, Mr. Nushi added that the Open Contracts platform has added to the social responsibility of the Municipality as an institution to undertake necessary measures to make sure that the contracts are completed as per contract. As well as, for companies to implement those contracts as planned since due to the Open Contracting platform, citizens, media outlets and other stakeholders have the means to hold the companies accountable. The success of this platform has also garnered the attention at the central level institutions in Kosovo where they have shown interest and guidance in the potential implementation of the same platform in other municipalities as well. This ‘success story’ is serving as a great tool to increase awareness of platforms of this type that have shown great potential to contribute to open and transparent governance.
An additional feature of this platform is the linkage to another platform ‘Open Businesses’ where you can check who owns a business, the types of activities the business engages in, amongst others. This feature further enhances the functionality of the platform since it offers the possibility to check who is the owner of a company which if you might suspect that there is any conflict of interest involved e.g. if a politician’s or public official’s business got a certain contract. These type of platforms serve as great mechanisms in the fight against corruption and in the pursuit of increasing of transparency.
Open contracts platforms while new in Kosovo’s local government level, nevertheless, they have garnered immense support from the public, as well as from the officials within the Municipality of Prishtina and Municipality of Lipjan. The effects of such platforms, according to the interviews conducted, encompass the internal workings of the municipalities as well as fostering a better image of the municipalities due to the fast, easy and free access to the ongoing contracts in these municipalities. These platforms have dealt with the confusion surrounding the procurement processes which is common in every country, and has been dealt with an innovative solution which has been implemented all over the world. Open Data Kosovo’s work is heavily concentrated in increasing transparency and accountability of the public institutions in Kosovo and these platforms demonstrate just that. Nevertheless, Kosovo’s government should as well invest and commit themselves to developing platforms such as this or similar towards more open, transparent, and accountable governance. 2 municipalities down, 36 more to go.
