Cengkuru Michael · Open data systems

I build the systems that make public spending harder to hide.

Ten years. Seven countries. One discipline

Most disclosure portals die within three years. I work on the ones that survive — open contracting, infrastructure transparency, beneficial ownership — with the government teams who own them after I leave. Now: Data Specialist, CoST — Infrastructure Transparency Initiative

100,000+
contracts published through Uganda’s national portal
7
country systems across procurement and infrastructure data
3
standards translated into operational workflows

Role

Data Specialist

CoST — the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative. Disclosure and monitoring systems with government teams across Africa.

Span

10+ years

Started 2015 on Uganda’s National Procurement Portal. Now publishes 100,000+ contracts.

Standards

OC4IDS · OCDS · BO

Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard. Open Contracting Data Standard. Beneficial Ownership.

II · The work

Disclosure is the easy half.

I started as a developer on Uganda’s National Procurement Portal in 2015. That system now publishes more than 100,000 contracts. Building it taught me the part nobody warns you about: disclosure without verification is performance, and data without accountability is noise.

Since then I’ve worked on procurement and infrastructure platforms across seven countries. The pattern is consistent. Governments want transparency systems. Donors fund them. Most are dead within three years — the dashboard is up, the data is stale, the government team that was meant to own it has moved on.

Note The ones that survive share something in common: capability sits inside the government team, not the consultant.

So that’s the work. Open data standards (OC4IDS, OCDS, Beneficial Ownership). Red-flag detection. Automated disclosure workflows. Dashboards that surface what matters instead of what’s easy to query. Training that transfers capability to government teams instead of creating dependency on me.

III · Regional ledger

Seven countries, one method.

The map is not a travel record. Each point is a system receipt: a public owner, a data standard, an implementation role, and the visual layer that turns disclosure into decisions.

  1. 01 Map the source data
  2. 02 Validate the standard
  3. 03 Surface the decision
  4. 04 Transfer ownership
Seven sites, one route.

Method receipt

Hover a country

System
Seven sites, one route.
Role
Move across the map or ledger to inspect the work.
Authority signal
Country-specific implementation record.

IV · The line

Disclosure without verification is performance

A working principle, after a decade in the room

Working with me

Open to advisory, implementation, and review work on disclosure systems.

michael@cengkuru.com View services →