Implementing beneficial ownership transparency in the Kyrgyz Republic extractives sector — findings and recommendations

Annex B: Synchronising with the Open Ownership Register

There are three main ways that the data could be synchronised with the Open Ownership Register:

  1. Regular data dumps (probably daily, or perhaps weekly), driven by a script and a scheduler (e.g. cron job). We would strongly recommend the dumps be done to the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard, and be made available as open data on a public interface as the UK register does with the PSC Register.[13] This is the cheapest, quickest, and easiest to implement, and easiest for users to consume too.
  2. ‘Pull’ interface. With this option, SCIESU would provide an API (like that provided by UK Companies House) that gives access to the underlying data as structured data. We would recommend that such an API returned data in BODS format JSON. We think that there are benefits to building this type of API, which would position the extractives sector to lead transparency within the Kyrgyz Republic by allowing integration with other systems (e.g. procurement systems or asset declaration registers). This would promote innovation, and increase use of the data domestically.
  3. ‘Push’ interface. With this option, the Open Ownership Register would implement an API that would allow updates to be ‘pushed’ by SCIESU’s systems to the OOR. While this is best for synchronicity, it is also the most complex to implement, and for this reason, would not recommend starting with it.
Footnote

[13] See http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_pscdata.html.This bulk data is provided in addition to the public-facing register.