Views from the Center

In a blog post on the World Bank’s website, Marcos Siqueira lays out the case for total public contract transparency, including disclosure of unredacted contracts, associated financial deals, unredacted bids, unredacted amendments, performance reports, financial data of the project company, and fiscal commitments and risks.  

Today, CGD is presenting the Commitment to Development Award to The Open Government Partnership (OGP), a consortium of governments and civil society from 65 countries that have made over 2,000 commitments to make government more open and accountable. 

On April 25, the Philippine government launched Version 2.0 of its Foreign Aid Transparency Hub (FAiTH).   FAiTH records all foreign aid and assistance, in pledges, cash, and non-cash donations, given to the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. The portal offers detailed information, by donor.  Information can be accessed online or downloaded for further analysis.  As of today, FAiTH indicates that the government has received $762 million in foreign assistance, of which $248 million is cash and $514 is in-kind assistance.  The total amount of cash received by the government, including from domestic sources, is $336 million.

What do Argentina, India, and South Africa have in common with Jersey, Cayman and the Turks and Caicos? They’ve just agreed to share financial information with each other, for tax purposes.