Reimagining procurement transparency for informal settlement residents

This report examines how access to municipal procurement information affects service delivery and accountability for South Africa’s informal settlement residents. It highlights that over 10 million people depend on municipal contractors for essential services like water, sanitation, and waste removal, but these services are often unreliable. Traditional transparency assessments focused only on whether municipalities publish procurement documents miss the real accountability needs of residents. The report argues that true procurement transparency is not just about making documents public, but about ensuring that residents can easily access, understand, and use the information to monitor services, report problems, and engage with municipalities. It introduces a new approach to procurement transparency that centres on how residents actually find and use procurement information in their daily lives, aiming to guide reforms that support practical, citizen-focused transparency rather than bureaucratic compliance.

Abstract based on original source.