14.09.2018
Another expansion stage of vergabe.NRW came online just in time for the “E-Vergabe-Tag NRW“. The open government service "www.open.nrw" now provides important data on tender-related procedures in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in a technically structured form.
For example, the portal provides information on contract details, deadlines and contracting authorities. The extensive data material - thousands of publications per year - is processed in machine-readable form. It can be downloaded by any user via an open interface and can therefore be used for research, online applications or presentations.
"On the one hand, the data promotes transparency in public procurement in our country," emphasized Dr. Patrick Opdenhövel, State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, which has implemented the project with the Ministry of Economics, Innovation, Digitisation and Energy, that is responsible for Open Data activities. "On the other hand, they should also help our state authorities and local authorities to produce more detailed evaluations of the procedures initiated in order to set themselves apart from other clients and to work more cost-effectively when they put public contracts out to tender."
The further development of digital services is right at the top of the agenda of the state government. "We do not want to cope with digitisation, we want to actively shape it. To this end, we will invest up to two billion euros from the state budget in digital projects by 2025," announced Christoph Dammermann, State Secretary in the Ministry of Economics and Digital Affairs.
The expansion was also well received at EU level. "We expressly welcome the initiative in NRW," said Anne Schröder, who is responsible for procurement policy in Germany in the EU Commission's Directorate-General for the Internal Market.
A look at the situation in the EU shows that it is a matter of course in many Member States to publish contract information and in some cases even contract information on all tender-related procedures.
"This is not just a matter of transparency, it is the first time that a sufficient amount of structured data has been made available from which exciting services can be developed for authorities" explains Carsten Klipstein, CEO of the GovTech Group and Managing Director of cosinex.