Links to official contact points

[ColinMaudry]

In TED XML R2.0.8, F16 offers the possibility to add links to certain legislative content and associated contact points for information.

1. Tax legislation URL
2. Environmental protection legislation URL
3. Employment protection and working conditions URL
4. Address, contact points and internet site of the relevant government service from which information can be obtained about taxes
5. Address, contact points and internet site of the relevant government service from which information can be obtained about environmental protection
6. Address, contact points and internet site of the relevant government service from which information can be obtained about employment protection and working conditions

We could structure this data this way:

{
  "tender": {
    "legislativeReferences": [
      {
        "title": "Tax legislation",
        "url": "http://...",
        "informationService": {
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

[jpmckinney]

@ColinMaudry title sounds good to me!

[ColinMaudry]

Instead of a redundant contactPoint (it would also be in the Organization object), why not using governmentService or officialService?

[jpmckinney]

I was also not happy with contactPoint, but wasn't sure what to use. informationService?

[ColinMaudry]

@jpmckinney Would I rather implement this structure in:

1. in ocds_legalBasis_extension
2. in ocds_eu_extension
3. in a new extension?

I'll start with option 2.

[jpmckinney]

Yes, let's do Option 2 for now.

In other jurisdictions, I know citations to laws are disclosed, but I haven't yet seen URLs or contact points.

[ColinMaudry]

Closed with https://github.com/open-contracting-extensions/ocds_eu_extension/pull/6/commits/2423579ed5a59ac281de0bbe54cc4de890010882

[Ben-Hickling]

@ColinMaudry I notice informationService has been added as a ContactPoint object. Should this be Organization instead so that the postal address can be included?

[ColinMaudry]

I'll have a look, thanks!

[ColinMaudry]

Right, we could replace the ContactPoint object with an OrganizationReference object. A new party should consequently be created, with a fitting role, such as 'informationService' (=> guidance update).

Would you be OK with that @jpmckinney?

[jpmckinney]

Hmm, the information service isn't really a "party" to the contract. Is the problem just that the contact point needs an address? I think it'd be simpler to add an address field to the contact point.

[Ben-Hickling]

Yes, when we discussed it on email for UK/EU data, you suggested that informationService wasn't a party but would be an Organization object using the same structure as in parties, so our current implementation for the F16 form is as follows.

"legislativeReferences": [
  {
    "title",
    "url",
    "informationService": {
      "name",
      "identifier": {
        "legalName",
        "id"
      }
      "address": {
        "streetAddress",
        "locality",
        "postalCode",
        "countryName"
      },
      "contactPoint": {
        "name",
        "telephone",
        "email",
        "faxNumber"
      },
      "additionalContactPoints": [
        {
          "email"
        }
      ],
      "details": {
        "url"
      } 
    }
  }
]

[ColinMaudry]

@BenCCS switching Organisation with ContacPoint (with address) for the informationService field, the implementation would be:

"legislativeReferences": [
  {
    "title": "",
    "url": "",
    "informationService": {
      "name": "",
      "email": "",
      "telephone": "",
      "faxNumber": "",
      "url": "",
      "address": {
        "streetAddress": "",
        "locality": "",
        "postalCode": "",
        "countryName": ""
      } 
    }
  }
]

Would that work?

[jpmckinney]

@JachymHercher In R2.0.8 defence forms, there are:

• Address, contact points and internet site of the relevant government service from which information can be obtained about taxes
• Address, contact points and internet site of the relevant government service from which information can be obtained about environmental protection
• Address, contact points and internet site of the relevant government service from which information can be obtained about employment protection and working conditions

How are these represented in eForms? Do you think it would be best to model these as ContactPoints in OCDS or as Organizations?

[JachymHercher]

In eForms, these are modelled as codes in the BT-8 (Organisation Role):

• 'Organisation providing information concerning the general regulatory framework for taxes applicable in the place where the contract is to be performed.'
• 'Organisation providing information concerning the general regulatory framework for environmental protection applicable in the place where the contract is to be performed.'
• 'Organisation providing information concerning the general regulatory framework for employment protection and working conditions applicable in the place where the contract is to be performed.'

I would model it as an Organisation, because in reality they are independent organisations (not contact points of a single organisation); and it will be in line with eForms. Also, the fields were left in eForms because the law requires them to be there, but we don't expect much (any) use, so I wouldn't do changes to the schema just to accomodate them. (If anyone wanted to use them, then he would presumably just include the address and URL of, e.g., the ministry of environment, but the added value of that is pretty much zero.)

Hmm, the information service isn't really a "party" to the contract.

According to the description of role, it's enough to play a role in the contracting process, which imo is sufficiently broad.

[jpmckinney]

Okay, I'm fine with modelling the information service as an organization. (It seems like we might need to relax the constraints around "party" anyway, since a few issues relate to wanting to put more information in that array.)

[ColinMaudry]

The initial guidance we gave @BenCCS remains consequently valid:

1. add a Party
2. give it the "informationService" role
3. reference it from the LegalReference object

I will add this role to partyRole via the eu extension (https://github.com/open-contracting-extensions/ocds_eu_extension/blob/master/codelists/%2BpartyRole.csv).

[ColinMaudry]

Does it mean we don't add .address to ContactPoint? (https://github.com/open-contracting/standard/issues/1164)

[Ben-Hickling]

Thanks to all for working this one through. @jpmckinney, @ColinMaudry, could you confirm that the following is an example of the new required structure?

"tender": {
  "legislativeReferences": [
    {
      "title": "Tax legislation",
      "url": "https://www.example.com/",
      "informationService": {
        "id": "42",
        "name": "Ministry of Information"
      }
    }
  ]
}
"parties": [
  {
    "id": "42",
    "name": "Ministry of Information",
    "identifier": {...},
    "address": {...},
    "contactPoint": {...},
    "details": {...},
    "roles": [
      "informationService"
    ]
  }
]

[ColinMaudry]

That's right! The sample JSON in https://github.com/open-contracting-extensions/ocds_eu_extension is outdated, a PR is about to fix it https://github.com/open-contracting-extensions/ocds_eu_extension/pull/9).