Changes in transparency and ethics in the last three years have seen the number of law suits against the Ministry of Public Work in El Salvador reduced to zero. In 2009, 80% of Ministry of Public Works contracts were paralysed by legal problems and had debts of $43m.

This remarkable change has been driven by the Minister of Public Works, Gerson Martinez. Speaking at the CoST Regional Conference on Transparency in Public Infrastructure the Minister said: “Public administration has to be public with total transparency of all contracts. It also requires a change in ethical behaviour to build trust between the private sector, government and civil society.”

Conference and CoST Interim Board Chair, Christiaan Poortman said “The Minister’s success demonstrates the importance of political leadership in driving improvements in transparency and ethical behaviour. It also demonstrates the importance of the multi-stakeholder approach, a key feature of the CoST Programme, in building trust between the different stakeholders.”

Hosted by CoST Guatemala and the Guatemalan Secretary of Control and Transparency, participants from Argentina, Brasil, El Salvador, Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Mexico heard about the latest ideas and innovations in transparency in the construction sector.

This included the development of guides by Instituto Ethos to explain ‘A fair game and a foul game’ to the public in the construction of the 2014 World Cup in Brasil and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janero and how citizens in Chile can prioritise infrastructure projects on a website.

About 60 participants also heard about the importance of training procuring entity staff on using INFObras, a portal disclosure in Peru and that 70% of the wood obtained from illegal logging in Ecuador is used in the construction sector.

The event also saw the Launch of the CoST Guatemala programme with supporting statements from Verόnica Taracena, Secretary of Control and Transparency, Álvaro Zepeda Guatemala Chamber of Construction and Marvin Flores from Acciόn Ciudadana.

The conference was followed by a one day workshop where the regional participants discussed the potential benefits of the CoST programme and how it may add value to their existing programmes.