(Yaoundé – May 12, 2022) Members of Parliament, representatives of public administrations, and civil society organizations in Cameroon gathered around the Coordinator of the National Governance Program under the Prime Minister’s Office, as part of the Open Government Working Group sessions.
The discussions focused on the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) through the initiative “Supporting responsible and open public procurement in sub-Saharan Africa.” In Cameroon, the pan-African organization AfroLeadership, a specialist in open data, is leading the implementation of this digital technology as part of a project aimed at opening up public contracts and procurement processes, in accordance with Law No. 2018/011 of July 11, 2018 on the Code of Transparency and Good Governance.
The ambition is to equip the country with a digital platform for the publication of public procurement contracts, both at the state level and at the level of decentralized local authorities, in compliance with the General Code of Decentralized Local Authorities (CTD) of December 24, 2019, and to train operational stakeholders as well as citizens in the use of the published data.
During the session, the various ministries expressed their interest in making public contract data available to all citizens, as, according to the President of AfroLeadership, “the primary beneficiaries of open data are public administrations themselves, which can gain efficiency, effectiveness, and enhanced collaboration.” Moreover, the Public Contracts Regulatory Agency (ARMP), a key actor in Cameroon’s public procurement system, expressed its willingness to cooperate with AfroLeadership in sharing experiences.
Recommendations were also made, including a strong call for the adoption of a freedom of information law, as well as the need to establish regulatory frameworks for the systematic and widespread publication of data by public administrations. The value of the Open Contracting Partnership lies in its standard (Open Contracting Data Standard – OCDS), which provides a structured approach for publishing contract data on a digital platform, as well as a more citizen-friendly presentation. A demonstration of a digital platform built in accordance with the OCDS standard helped illustrate the presentation by expert Charlie Martial Ngounou.
The work, carried out under the supervision of the National Governance Program, took place one week after a technical training workshop for media and civil society on the use of the platform and monitoring of public procurement, held on May 5, 2022.a