Indonesia Encourages Information Transparency as an Anti-Corruption Fortress
Jakarta – The government continues to encourage information transparency as a strategic step in strengthening governance as well as an effort to prevent corruption.
This was emphasized by the Assistant Deputy for Coordination of Public Service Improvement of the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Agung Pratistho, in the Coordination Meeting on Strengthening Information Service Governance.
According to Agung, the provision and service of public information carried out proactively and responsively is very important to strengthen the governance of information services.
“The importance of the provision and service of public information proactively and responsively as well as efforts to strengthen the governance of information services in order to provide better, more transparent, and community-oriented information services,” he explained.
However, he highlighted that public information services at the regional level still face a number of obstacles.
Among them are low human resource capacity, the less than optimal function of the Information and Documentation Management Officer (PPID), weak documentation and archive systems, and the lack of digital integration of information services.
“Regional governments are required not only to provide information, but also to have an effective, structured information management system that is in accordance with the principles of openness,” said Agung.
He added that strengthening the information service system is a systematic step to improve the procedures and quality of resources used by regional governments.
“With good collaboration between the central government, related institutions, and the community, it is hoped that information openness can run more effectively, transparently, and increase public participation in making the right policies and decisions,” he said.
The same thing was conveyed by the Deputy Chairperson of the Central Information Commission, Arya Sandhiyudha. He called public information openness the core of democracy and good governance.
“The importance of collaboration and roles is not only from government elements but from all parties, be it from civil society, the press, NGOs, or business actors to help increase their role in public information openness,” he said.
Meanwhile, in North Kalimantan, similar efforts were also carried out through a coordination meeting on public information openness involving all Regional Apparatus Organizations.
The Assistant for General Administration of the North Kalimantan Provincial Secretariat, Pollymaart Sijabat, emphasized information openness as the main pillar of good governance.
“This is an instrument of public oversight of the running of regional government,” Pollymaart emphasized.
He stated that the Kaltara Provincial Government is targeting to enter the informative category this year.
“We must improve. Don’t just participate in monitoring and evaluation, but really improve the quality of information disclosure,” he said.*
