Services Open data systems

I build disclosure systems
that survive after launch.

I work with governments, transparency initiatives, and implementation teams to turn procurement, infrastructure, ownership, and extractives records into standards-compliant data pipelines that can be published, tested, reused, and kept current long after the launch event is over. Standards mapped. Systems wired. Capability transferred.

Find where your system is failing
Pen-and-ink illustration of a single bend of empty country road seen from directly above, drawn in matte obsidian line work with a restrained aluminium grey wash on the road surface. One short vermillion line is drawn alongside the outer edge of the bend as a small mark of attention.
One bend. One small mark of attention.
  • 100,000+ contracts published through Uganda’s national portal
  • 1,496 infrastructure projects disclosed in Kaduna State, with cost and timeline
  • 7 country systems, procurement and infrastructure
  • 2015 to present, still building and maintaining
  • OC4IDS · OCDS · BODS · EITI standards translated into working pipelines

Disclosure without verification is performance.

Data without accountability is noise.

I work in the gap between those two failures: I map the standard, wire the system, and transfer the routine into the institution that has to keep it alive.

Start where it is failing

Where is your disclosure system failing?

Most transparency systems do not fail loudly. They go stale, fall out of the standard, or lose the person who kept them running. Find the symptom you recognise.

  1. 01

    The data does not validate

    The records exist, but they do not map cleanly to OC4IDS, OCDS, BODS, EITI, or the disclosure requirement you are accountable to.

    Service Standards mapping and validation review

  2. 02

    The portal is online but stale

    The website is up. The pipeline is not. Updates depend on manual uploads, heroic staff, or a consultant who has already left.

    Service Publication pipeline and portal recovery

  3. 03

    The dashboard shows activity, not accountability

    Users can see charts, but cannot answer whether the project was delivered, delayed, overpriced, conflicted, or abandoned.

    Service Oversight and reuse layer

  4. 04

    The record stops at the award

    Procurement data says who won. It does not show whether the road, clinic, school, or power line was ever built.

    Service Procurement-to-delivery linkage, OC4IDS

  5. 05

    The team was trained, but capability did not transfer

    People attended the workshop. They still cannot run the routine inside their own workflow, with their own records.

    Service Institutional capability clinics

What I build or fix

What you can engage me to do.

Disclosure system diagnostic

Use when
Your portal, dataset, or disclosure programme exists, but something is not working.
What I do
Audit the source records, standard mapping, publication workflow, validation layer, freshness, ownership, and the tasks real users need it for.
You leave with
A failure map, priority fixes, standard gaps, a recovery roadmap, and a recommended operating routine.

Receipt The model behind my essay “Why disclosure portals die” is this exact diagnosis.

Standards mapping and validation review

Use when
You need procurement, infrastructure, ownership, or extractives records mapped to OC4IDS, OCDS, BODS, EITI, or an adjacent standard.
What I do
Field-level mapping, schema review, gap analysis, codelist alignment, cross-standard harmonisation, and validation logic.
You leave with
A standards-compliant mapping pack, validation findings, publication requirements, and an implementation backlog.

Receipt Deepest OC4IDS field-level mapping reviews across CoST member countries.

Publication pipeline and portal recovery

Use when
The portal exists but depends on manual uploads, stale extracts, inconsistent records, or unclear ownership.
What I do
Design or repair the data model, publication layer, API approach, validation routines, freshness signals, and recovery roadmap.
You leave with
A working publication architecture, data-flow design, validation routine, dashboard logic, and a maintenance plan.

Receipt Kaduna State, Nigeria: 1,496 infrastructure projects published with cost, timeline, and completion data.

Oversight and reuse layer

Use when
You publish data, but it does not yet support oversight, assurance, journalism, citizen monitoring, or internal decisions.
What I do
Design dashboards, red-flag logic, anomaly signals, quality indicators, and the public-use questions the system should answer.
You leave with
A set of accountable questions the system can answer, the data fields required to answer them, and the layer that surfaces them.

Receipt The work is not dashboards; it is records that answer a citizen, auditor, or engineer’s question.

Institutional capability clinics

Use when
The system is built, but a government team needs to operate it with their actual records and decisions.
What I do
Hands-on clinics using the institution’s own data, publication routines, quality checks, and oversight workflows.
You leave with
Staff who can run the routine, documented governance, quality checks, and a repeatable publication practice.

Receipt Kampala: 143 procurement officers, and one real question that broke a year-old design assumption.

The method underneath

Standard. System. Capability.

Whatever the symptom, every engagement resolves the same questions.

01

Standard

What should the record mean? Procurement to OCDS or OC4IDS, extractives to EITI, ownership to BODS. The work is the same: make the data comparable, publishable, and verifiable against a public definition.

  • Field-level mapping and gap analysis
  • Cross-standard migration and harmonisation
  • Validation, quality assurance, and review
  • Working with the schema, not around it

02

System

How does the record move, validate, publish, and stay fresh? The publication and oversight layer that turns a standard into a working asset. A portal is just one of its surfaces.

  • Publication layer, API, validation
  • Oversight dashboards and red-flag logic
  • Freshness, quality, and integrity signals
  • Recovery roadmap for stalled systems

03

Capability

Who inside the institution can keep the routine alive? Capability work transfers the practice into the team, their data, their workflows, their decisions. I leave the institution stronger, not more dependent.

  • Implementation training for government teams
  • Using disclosure data for oversight
  • Data-quality routines and publication governance
  • Hands-on clinics with the institution’s records

Same count.

One verified.

Pen-and-ink illustration of two columns of small horizontal tally-marks side by side on ceramic paper. The left column has every mark aligned, evenly spaced, drawn with discipline. The right column has the same number of marks but each one skewed at a slightly different angle, lengths uneven. One short vermillion check is drawn beside the topmost mark of the left column only; the right column has no mark. Drawn in matte obsidian line work with restrained aluminium grey wash.
Two columns, same count. Only one was checked.

Proof, attached

Where the work has held.

Uganda · National procurement disclosure

Started as a developer in 2015. The national portal now publishes more than 100,000 contracts, and is still live.

Lead architect · since 2015

Kaduna State, Nigeria · Infrastructure disclosure

1,496 infrastructure projects published with cost, timeline, and completion data, mapped to OC4IDS.

OC4IDS implementation · 2021 to 2023

CoST member countries · OC4IDS mapping

Field-level mapping and validation reviews across infrastructure transparency systems, the deepest application of the practice.

Standards lead

Kampala · Capability transfer

Trained 143 procurement officers. One officer’s question exposed the gap between launch, use, and data quality, and changed the design.

Implementation training

Have a portal, dataset, or standard mapping that is not holding? Send it.

Send the broken record

Ways to work

How the engagement is shaped.

  • Diagnostic review

    For a live or planned disclosure system that needs a hard technical and institutional read.

    Failure map, standards gaps, recovery roadmap, priority backlog.

  • Implementation sprint

    For a team ready to map records, wire publication, validate data, or repair a pipeline.

    Mapping pack, data model, validation rules, publication workflow, working prototype.

  • Advisory retainer

    For a programme that needs ongoing technical judgment across standards, systems, and delivery.

    Design reviews, implementation support, quality assurance, decision memos, team clinics.

  • In-country capability clinic

    For a government team that needs to operate the system with their own records.

    Trained team, tested workflow, quality routine, publication governance.

Receipts

Where the practice has run.

Seven engagements across twelve years. The bars overlap because the work overlaps, the practice has rarely been one country at a time.

  1. Uganda Lead architect · National procurement disclosure
    2015, present
  2. Mozambique Implementation lead · Infrastructure transparency
    2018, 2022
  3. Nigeria Technical assistance · Open contracting disclosure
    2019, 2022
  4. Kenya Technical assistance · Tender disclosure
    2020, 2022
  5. Ghana Technical assistance · Electronic government procurement
    2021, 2023
  6. Malawi Ongoing advisory · Infrastructure disclosure
    2022, present
  7. South Sudan Technical assistance · National procurement
    2023, present
  • Standard field-level mapping
  • System working portal
  • Capability transferred to team
  • Active still running

Years are engagement spans, not contract dates. Bars marked “present” are still active.

No pitch deck. Bring the record.

Send the portal, dataset, standard, or workflow you are trying to fix, and one question the system should answer. I will tell you where the failure most likely is: the standard, the pipeline, the validation layer, or the institutional routine.

Write to me