Latin America News August 2017

20 LATIN AMERICA NEWS / Issue 2 2017 , “President Juan Orlando Hernández has spent years fighting to make the construction sector more transparent,” Honduran Infrastructure Minister Roberto Pineda said. “This meeting will showcase the tremendous progress our administration has made.” The meeting will include fellow CoST members Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala. Each country’s CoST programme consists of representatives of public, private and civil society organisations that work with the national government and CoST headquarters in London to collect data, conduct oversight of public works projects and ensure that taxpayer dollars are used wisely. September’s meeting will focus on the System for Information and Follow-up on Public Works and Supervision Contracts, or SISOCS, a programme co- managed by CoST Honduras and the Honduran General Directorate of Highways. SISOCS is a model for other CoST members of how to provide government support for construction data disclosures. In the last three years, the programme has successfully overseen construction projects valued at over $60 billion. Since CoST Honduras was founded in 2015, the share of projects reporting their costs has more than tripled, from 27 % to 84 %. In 2016, on the recommendation of CoST Honduras, the government founded the Honduran Roadways Fund Auditing Committee to increase financial disclosure for transportation projects. CoST Honduras also closely monitors the Honduran government’s commitments to disclose spending in the energy, telecommunications and housing sectors. “CoST has helped Honduras responsibly manage government funds and develop high-quality public infrastructure,” President Hernández said. “This meeting will reaffirm our pledge to be transparent with our citizens about how we’re investing government resources.” Honduras to Champion Transparency in Construction During September, the Honduran government will host ameeting of the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative, or CoST, an international organisation dedicated tomaximising the value of public works projects via data reporting and project monitoring. The gathering will take place September 4-5 in Tegucigalpa.