On April 8, CLDP, in coordination with the General Directorate for Public Contracting, participated in a virtual webinar with 280 participants to discuss U.S. best practices in preventing and addressing urgent and emergency procurement situations. CLDP spoke on a panel with the national directors of public procurement from Panama and Paraguay to share international best practices with an audience of public and private stakeholders in the Dominican Republic (DR) on increasing transparency and accountability in urgent and emergency public procurements. The DR’s procurement system includes significant gaps for these types of procurement, which are often exploited by government contracting offices to bypass competitive and transparent processes. These gaps, along with rigid procurement rules, increase the risk of corruption and inefficiency while also disadvantaging foreign companies. This is part of CLDP’s ongoing effort to socialize potential reforms of the DR’s public procurement law and to solicit feedback from stakeholders.