CoST has a great international supporter base and in our new ‘Get to Know’ feature, we’ll be introducing the people that are bringing CoST to life across the globe.

This month CoST spoke to Alfredo Cantero, who joined the CoST Board in December 2015 following 18 months serving within the CoST Honduras Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) as a government representative. Alfredo has worked extensively in the Honduran government and private sector, including in the Office of the President under the current administration of President Hernández (2014-2018) and the administrations of Presidents Ricardo Maduro (2002 – 2006) and Porfirio Lobo Sosa (2010 – 2014).

As a government representative, why does CoST interest you?

Beyond my role as a government representative, as a Honduran I have a great interest in the impact that CoST will have on ensuring transparency in all infrastructure projects that our government implements. This transparency will bring positive benefits for both citizens and the country, which are well documented by CoST.

As a representative of President Juan Orlando Hernández, it is a great honor to represent the Honduran government in CoST as the program exemplifies the President’s war against corruption and his efforts to ensure transparency in all of the government’s actions.

How does CoST make a difference to people’s lives in Honduras?

Purely from an infrastructure point of view, CoST serves as a mark of quality in all current and future procurement contracts. This ensures a level playing field for contractors, thereby attracting world-class companies to invest in the country as they are confident that they will participate in transparent and open contracting processes.

Building on the success that we’ve had in implementing CoST in roads projects, we are now looking to replicate this experience in a number of ambitious Public Private Partnership projects in Honduras.

The bottom line of all of this is that CoST ensures an efficient use of public funds and prevents corruption.

Why do you think CoST’s multi-stakeholder approach is important to achieving results and how can we strengthen this cooperation?

Multi-stakeholder working is at the core of CoST which is fundamentally trying to achieve two things in Honduras: building trust between sectors and transforming a culture that has previously considered corruption to be just another cost of doing business.

For the impact of CoST to be permanent and irreversible, such a change of culture needs to happen in the Public, Private, and Social sectors simultaneously; this is ensured by its multi-stakeholder approach.

What will be your main priority as a CoST Board member?

I want to build on the experience of Honduras, promoting the fact that you can be a small, developing country with limited resources but still successfully implement CoST and reap the benefits of a transparent infrastructure sector in the very short term.