Privacy commissioner pushes N.L. to post contracts for goods and services online
The province's information and privacy commissioner believes he has a way to save the Newfoundland and Labrador government money and fight corruption at the same time: by posting its contracts with companies for various goods and services online.
"This is a great opportunity for our province to be the leader, given that we now have one of the best pieces of access to information and privacy legislation in the country. We should be leading the country in this area as well," said Donovan Molloy.
He said other countries have started posting the contents of contracts online and seen savings, and his idea has caught the attention of some people in this province.
"A couple of public bodies, I'm very happy to say, are interested in pursuing the idea further as a pilot project," Molloy told CBC News.
"Of course the devil's in the details, and we're trying to amass as much information as we can with regards to examples of jurisdictions where it's worked and the precise savings that they've achieved."
He said in Ukraine, the government there saw a 13 per cent savings when it started posting contracts online.
Levelling the playing field
In this province, Molloy has heard anecdotally that suppliers sometimes charge some government departments and agencies more than others for the same goods.
He said posting all the contracts and prices online would end that.
Right now, the province does maintain an Open Data web site where it posts data on a variety of topics such as fuel prices, wildlife permits, and mining industry employment.
He said there is reluctance within government to publish contract details online, afraid that companies may be scared away from bidding knowing that all prices and other information will be made available to other customers and competitors.
But Molloy countered that argument, saying the sheer size of government contracts will continue to make it lucrative for companies to bid.
"The experience is it creates fairer competition, it guards against corruption and it provides the public with timely information about how funds are being used," said Molloy, adding there could be a caveat included in his idea: information that involves a trade secret or could harm a business should be left out of online disclosure.
Change is coming
Currently, contracts can be released in response to an access to information request, and some businesses have unsuccessfully fought to keep the contracts from being publicly released.
Molloy said companies interested in a government contract already routinely file access requests and get the information they seek, but he said proactive disclosure would streamline that process.
"It's something that I think is coming, everywhere, eventually," said Molloy.
