[SecretContracts] [network] Re: [services] [all staff] What is the public contract you are most interested in opening up and why?

Tue Jun 24 11:24:39 UTC 2014

Is there any way of collecting all these stories on the campaign website?

Personalised stories about:

* 'why this campaign matters to me, and how it is not just some abstract
concept but is about real decisions, in real time'.*

This will also alert us to local campaign groups who perhaps are trying to
change something, but who don't realise that the problems they face are
part of this wider, which means access to other people's mailing lists.....

Just a thought.
J

On 23 June 2014 11:23, Theodora Middleton <theodora.middleton at okfn.org>
wrote:

> Commercial confidentiality is invoked in regards to all kinds of contracts
> (in the UK at least) to bypass FoI.
>
> For example, a piece of common land
> <http://keepbotwellcommon.blogspot.co.uk/> in my local area will be sold
> by the (Tory) council to build a primary school on. There were 14 other
> sites considered in the borough, and all were rejected by the council as
> unsuitable. But we are not allowed to know what those sites were or why
> they were rejected because of "commercial confidentiality", which makes it
> very difficult to challenge the sale of public land because we have no idea
> of how the decision was made and no information to challenge it with.
>
> Most famously is probably the impact of commercial confidentiality in the
> creeping privatisation of the NHS: for example here.
> <http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/allyson-pollock/%E2%80%98commercial-confidentiality%E2%80%99-trumps-public-right-to-know-in-england%E2%80%99s-new>
>
> Is commercial confidentiality a thing in other countries too? Its s43 of
> the FOIA here - do all FOIAs have this clause somewhere? How has it played
> out elsewhere?
>
> Agree with Adam that it's a key first target for contracting openness
> here.
>
> t
>
> <http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/allyson-pollock/%E2%80%98commercial-confidentiality%E2%80%99-trumps-public-right-to-know-in-england%E2%80%99s-new>
>
>
> On 19 June 2014 23:22, Daniela Mattern <daniela.mattern at okfn.org> wrote:
>
>> Hey Adam!
>>
>> do you have a concrete example? We could try procurement contracts for
>> software! I have tried this in São Paulo - we wanted to find out what was
>> spend with Oracle and Microsoft and how the support contracts were
>> structured. Also there was an issue around the contracts for public wifi
>> areas. I got none of these because of confidentiality issues. The same
>> occurred when I tried to open the contracts for public transport provision
>> in São Paulo. Also the government explained that these were confidential ...
>>
>> Which contract are you thinking of? Have you experienced it personally
>> that the contract was closed/have you somehow suffered from it or have you
>> read about it in the news?
>>
>> In order to start opening these types of contracts - would you start
>> doing a FOI request or would you rather start a petition? Or would you
>> build a coalition of organizations and people and write a policy letter and
>> make pressure on members of parliament? Or would you do something
>> completely different?
>>
>> Daniela
>>
>>
>> On 19 June 2014 23:14, Adam McGreggor <adam.mcgreggor at okfn.org> wrote:
>>
>>> > Which contract are you most interested in? Would you be interested in
>>> take part in a group were we try to open up these contracts?
>>>
>>> Anything where public money has been spent and releases have been
>>> declined under “commercial confidentiality”, particularly to Parliamentary
>>> Select Committees (and where said committees have not compelled witnesses
>>> to answer).
>>>
>>> I don’t think commercial confidentiality should apply. Organizations
>>> chose to take public funds, no one is forcing them, they should expect
>>> things to fall into public scrutiny.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Daniela Mattern
>>
>> Open Data Project Manager | skype: e1aste2000
>>
>> *Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org> *
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>>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
>
> *Theodora Middleton Press Officer  |  skype: theodora.middleton The Open
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