OKFN promotes openness and open data. When governments are open, then these governments can be more transparent, accountable. One of the issues that limits citizens ability to have transparent, open and accountable government is secret contracts. A new campaign has just started by OKFN to stop secret contracts. OKFN has announced it with a press release. By definition, public contracts means these should be public by default and classified only when strictly necessary. Citizens should be able to see that public money is properly spent, and not lining pockets of politicians and contractors. If you are not sure how much it is important to have “open” contracts, please have a look at these figures:
Stop Secret Contracts Campaing Promo
- Europe loses an estimated €120 billion to corruption every year (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/03/us-eu-corruption-idUSBREA120KN20140203)
- It is estimated that $20 billion dollars is lost to fraud and corruption in the defence sector every year. (http://www.transparency.org/topic/detail/defence_security)
- Africa ‘s around a quarter of its GDP is lost to corruption: around $148 billion .
If you care about open government please sign the petition. For more information please go to Stop Secret Contracts project website.
Please Tweet with hashtag #SecretContracts.
