Every field cross-checked against an OPR notice, ministry release, or audit report. Source URL resolves.
Methodology
How the data is collected, cleaned, and published.
OpenBudget TT publishes data that journalists, MPs, and citizens rely on. This page documents exactly how every record is produced, what we verify, and where the gaps are. If you find an error, tell us.
Pipeline
From OPR notice to published record
- 1
Ingest
Records are compiled from primary sources — published Notices of Contracts Awarded (OPR / NIDCO), Ministry of Finance HSF reports, and Parliament's Estimates of Expenditure. PDFs and HTML are parsed into structured records.
- 2
Normalise
Currency, date, and value formats are standardised. Ministry and supplier names are resolved against canonical registries.
- 3
Entity match
Suppliers are matched on name + Companies Registry number. Below the matching confidence threshold, the record is queued for editorial review.
- 4
Editorial review
The Editorial & Verification Lead reviews flagged records, resolves ambiguous matches, and applies data-quality flags.
- 5
Publish
Verified records are published to the registry with their source URL. Bulk exports update on the same cadence.
Schema
Contract record fields
The full schema for ministries, suppliers, and findings is available on the Open Data Portal.
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| id | uuid | Stable internal identifier. Where possible, derived deterministically from the source notice. |
| title | text | Verbatim contract title or subject line as published. |
| ministry_id | uuid → ministries.id | Resolved to a canonical ministry record. Renamed/merged ministries map to their successor entity. |
| supplier_id | uuid → suppliers.id | Resolved to a canonical supplier. See entity-matching notes below. |
| value_ttd | numeric | Awarded contract value in TTD. Foreign-currency values converted at the published award-date rate. |
| award_date | date | Date of award as published in the OPR notice or ministry release. |
| scope | text | One of Construction, Consultancy, Goods, Services, ICT, or Other. Inferred from notice subject when not explicit. |
| status | text | Active, Completed, Terminated, or Under Review. Updated when ministries publish completion or termination notices. |
| source_url | url | Public URL of the originating notice or release. |
| source_type | text | OPR Notice, Ministry Release, Auditor General, or Manual Upload. |
Quality
Data-quality flags
Every record carries one or more flags. We never silently interpolate or guess.
Scope category was inferred from the contract title because the source notice did not specify a category.
Original value was published in a non-TTD currency. Converted at the published Central Bank rate on the award date.
The supplier or ministry has formally disputed one or more fields. The dispute is published alongside the record.
Original public URL has gone offline. We retain a mirrored copy of the document.
Limitations
What we don’t cover yet
- The contract registry currently covers a curated, fully-sourced set of awards, beginning with NIDCO's published Notices of Contracts Awarded. It is not yet a complete record of all public procurement — coverage expands as further primary-source notices are verified and added.
- OpenBudget TT does not currently include sub-contracts. Only the prime award is shown.
- Procurement awarded under emergency provisions (PPA s.34) may be disclosed late or not at all.
- Annual budget allocations come from the published FY2026 Estimates of Expenditure. Mid-year supplementary appropriations are reflected when gazetted.
- Auditor General findings are not yet ingested. The schema and dashboards are in place; sourced findings will be added as they are verified against tabled reports. No findings are inferred or fabricated.
- Contract status reflects the award as published; completion is not independently tracked.
Cadence
How often the registry updates
Contract awards
Added as ministries and agencies publish their Notices of Contracts Awarded under the PPA, and as those notices are verified.
Budget allocations
Updated annually after the Estimates of Expenditure are laid in Parliament, plus supplementary appropriations.
HSF & live indicators
HSF figures track the audited annual and quarterly reports; the Economy dashboard streams live from World Bank Open Data.
Corrections
Applied within 5 working days of verification. The change log for every record is public.
See an error? Report it.
Every correction is logged. We reply to every report.
Licence
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
All data published by OpenBudget TT is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. You may copy, redistribute, remix, transform, and build upon the data for any purpose, including commercially, provided you give appropriate credit and indicate if changes were made.
Required attribution
“Source: OpenBudget TT (openbudgettt.gov.tt) — CC BY 4.0”