Transpara: Responsible data procurement guide for local governments

Local governments today face increasing pressure to use data responsibly when delivering public services. Research consistently shows that data and digital tools can enhance transparency, accountability, and efficiency in procurement, but only when governance and ethics are carefully embedded. For example, open data and analytics can help identify corruption risks such as market concentration or unusual contract modifications (Felizzola et al.) while e-procurement systems reduce costs and processing time by recording every decision in traceable digital form (Panayiotu et al.). At the same time, poor data quality, lack of standardization, and system incompatibilities often undermine these efforts (Csaki et al.; Roman et al.). Scholars also stress that procurement must move beyond a narrow focus on cost and compliance, to include sustainability, quality, and alignment with community goals (Patrucco et al.; Hsueh et al.; Conway). Finally, when procuring data-driven technologies, best practices call for rigorous needs assessment, market research, careful evaluation of privacy and equity impacts, and explicit contractual safeguards on data use and ownership (Richardson).

Drawing on this body of literature, we developed ten practical recommendations for responsible and effective data procurement:

• End-to-end data responsibility (Verhulst; Stoyanovich et al.)

• A needs-driven approach that aligns supply with urgent societal problems (Verhulst; Auxier & Lee; Meer)

• Inclusive stakeholder engagement that flattens inequities and brings citizens into the process (OECD; Tan et al.)

• Decision provenance and accountability to trace every stage of data use (Singh et al.)

• Professionalized data stewardship with clear roles for protecting, coordinating, and monitoring data collaborations (Verhulst)

• Careful rules for data reuse to balance public benefits and privacy risks (Young et al.)

• Contextual consent models that move beyond meaningless click-to-consent (Richards & Hartzog; Berinato; Barkhuus)

• Addressing data asymmetries by breaking silos and promoting cross-sector collaborations (Susha et al.; Verhulst; Young & Verhulst)

• Transparency around inferred data, recognizing both opportunities and risks of using information derived from user behavior (Barocas; Szymielewicz; Viljoen).

From these insights we created TRANSPARA: a practical checklist designed to help local governments procure and use data responsibly. TRANSPARA guides procurement teams through each stage of the process: defining problems before sourcing data, convening inclusive stakeholder groups, documenting and logging decision pipelines, assigning data stewards, specifying terms for reuse and consent, addressing asymmetries in access and benefit, and requiring transparency about inferred data.

By operationalizing academic and policy recommendations into an actionable tool, TRANSPARA enables governments to make data procurement transparent, accountable, and citizen-centered.