Representatives from the Department of Public Administration and the Mexican Chamber of Construction recently visited El Salvador to become more familiar with CoST El Salvador’s work on enhancing transparency and accountability in the construction sector. The visit was part of a process that will help the Government to decide if Mexico joins CoST.

The delegation was received by El Salvador’s Minister of Public Works Gerson Martinez who outlined the concrete measures such as Citizen’s Observatory of Public Works and integrity pacts which have been implemented since the beginning of his administration. The Minister also explained how CoST complements these measures. The visit of the Mexican delegation to El Salvador allowed for further discussions regarding the conditions and benefits of CoST membership.

The representatives also visited to Guatemala and the UK to learn more about how CoST is implemented in each country. The UK visit was hosted by the Institution of Civil Engineers with presentations given on Establishing and implementing CoST in the UK by the UK Multi-Stakeholder Group, Changing UK industry attitudes to corruption by Balfour Beatty and UK Government initiatives by Infrastructure UK. The International Secretariat facilitated a final wrap up session with lessons drawn. The presentations provoked many questions, and the entire visit was very successful in terms of fact-finding on CoST: good contacts were forged, information was gathered and friendships were begun.