The President of Honduras has issued an Executive Decree that establishes a Formal Disclosure Requirement (FDR) for Honduras.

An FDR represents a considerable milestone in delivering transparency in public infrastructure as it provides a legal basis for procuring entities to disclose the CoST Infrastructure Data Standard into the public domain.

Published in the official Honduras newspaper, the Executive Decree requires procuring entities to proactively disclose all items contained in the CoST Infrastructure Data Standard on the Information and Monitoring System of Public Works and Oversight Contracts (SISOCS).

The disclosure requirement applies gradually to all institutions of the Productive Infrastructure Cabinet. The Productive Infrastructure Cabinet is the public agency responsible for coordinating road, energy, transport, ports and telecommunications infrastructure. The procuring entities will have to adhere to the disclosure process, as established by the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG), within the CoST Programme framework and implementation schedule.

The Executive Order also authorizes the CoST MSG to use the assurance process to monitor compliance with the FDR.

Finally, the Decree establishes the link between SISOCS and another public system called HonduCompras, which is the official site for disclosing information on public procurement. This will avoid duplication of information repositories.

The MSG could not have reached this important milestone without the intervention of Honduras CoST Champion, Minister of Infrastructure Roberto Ordoñez, who introduced the initiative to the Cabinet.