To deepen the spirit of integrity and transparency and meet international standards, Agency Against Corruption collaborated with Water Resources Agency of Ministry of Economic Affairs to hold an international forum on October 15^th, 2021. The forum was based on the theme “From the Starting Points of Transparency, Accountability, and Engagement to the Actual Implementation of the Procurement Integrity Platform” and provided insights on the establishment of and the positive benefits brought about by the Procurement Integrity Platform. I-Jan Yeh, Vice Director of Transparency International Taiwan, and two foreign scholars were also invited to participate in the discussion. The forum was ultimately a great success and can serve as a paragon for other agencies for the establishment of procurement integrity platforms.

During the discussion, Chien-Hsin Lai, Director-General of Water Resources Agency, mentioned that the inception of the Procurement Integrity Platform started with the Creating Water Resources for Taiwan Plan, during which the workforce encountered difficulties and external intervention in the establishment of national water infrastructure. The Water Resources Agency subsequently sought help from Agency Against Corruption and the two Agencies collaborated to establish the Procurement Integrity Platform, creating a positive cycle environment in which colleagues are willing to shoulder responsibilities and perform their duties and external collaborating partners are encouraged to fulfill their contracts and improving the government’s administration efficiency.

Ming-Chien Cheng, Director-General of Agency Against Corruption, indicated that Minister Su of the Executive Yuan had previously stated in a meeting with Central Integrity Committee that “prevention is better than cure” and had further emphasized the importance of prevention mechanisms. In response, the Procurement Integrity Platform—established on the four bases of cross-disciplinary collaboration, collaboration between the public and private sectors, administration transparency, and public supervision, set up communication channels between different departments to facilitate the collaboration between administration and justice departments, strengthen the supervision mechanism, and protect the rights of external collaborating partners, creating an environment in which government officials are willing to take responsibilities and perform their duties and the public and private sectors work together to ensure that major national construction projects are completed on time and with high quality and integrity.

To adapt to Covid-19, this forum adopted real-time video conferencing and pre-recorded videos to accommodate issues such as different time zones, allowing scholars and experts such as A. J. Brown, board member of Transparency International, and Sara Paola Ramos Rodríguez, founder of Solutions for Water Integrity and Management (SWIM) in Germany, to participate in the forum. The forum used irreplaceable water value as the core theme and extended to the topics of transparency, accountability, engagement, and management integrity, while participants also shared the water-related integrity measures taken in different countries. Furthermore, Mr. Cheng elaborated on the background and operation of the Government Procurement Integrity Platforms, allowing scholars from home and abroad to understand Taiwan’s innovate policies in response to the Open Government National Action Plan and demonstrating Taiwan’s determination to provide quality public construction and realize politics of integrity by way of the promotion of procurement integrity platforms.