While Indonesian civil society groups strongly support publication, the government has defended its nondisclosure of mining contracts and licenses on the basis that they include confidentiality clauses or that disclosure will hurt the commercial competitiveness of the companies.

Yet, 44 other countries have already started disclosing extractive industry contracts and licenses. This is a shame for Indonesia considering that national legal provisions mean it could be a leader in this global trend.

Contract disclosure benefits not only governments and citizens, but also the private sector. Industry players, including mining giants like Freeport McMoran and Rio Tinto, which have operated in Indonesia, have expressed their support for the practice.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s government has made clear that it wishes to combat corruption. Publication of contracts and licenses is a crucial part of fighting graft as it allows government employees and the wider public access to the deals that government negotiators have secured and to hold them to account.

Agreeing to publish contracts adds an important dimension of ex-post accountability to negotiation processes. As noted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, when parties know that contractual terms will be made public, they are more likely to negotiate and draft in a manner to ensure that terms are able to withstand public and commercial scrutiny.

The legal basis to publish mining contracts and licenses in Indonesia has existed for over 10 years. Article 11 of the 2008 Central Information Commission (KIP) Law mentions that public bodies must make accessible “at any time any agreement between public bodies and third parties”.

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