Law No. 14/2008 on public information requires public institutions, including governmental bodies and state enterprises, to disclose information and data to the public.

“We have the regulation. However, its implementation remains patchy. For example, it takes a long time for journalists to obtain data from institutions. It may take up to 30 days or more,” the AJI’s chairman, Abdul Manan, said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The AJI noted that ensuring transparency and accountability of public institutions remained a challenging task — a conclusion made based on its study of 12 public institutions, including the Education and Culture Ministry, Law and Human Rights Ministry, Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Jakarta administration. Most institutions were given relatively low marks.

The study, which used a method designed by the Freedom of Information Advocates Network (FOIAnet), aimed to measure the implementation of the Public Information Law within the institutions.

“The Education and Culture Ministry has provided some information on its website, but when we filed an online request for other data, we didn’t receive any response,” AJI researcher Mawa Kresna said, adding that its study on the KPK yielded similar results.

“The Law and Human Rights Ministry also provided information online, but their documentation and information management officers [PPID] were moved to other desks. So when we went to its office and requested some data, the ministry couldn’t provide anything to us,” he said.

The Jakarta administration and Jakarta High Court were given the lowest marks for public institutions, mainly due to their inability to provide information upon request.

In response to this finding, the Jakarta administration questioned the method used by the AJI, saying it had implemented the law and a PPID team was in place to provide access to information, both online and offline.

The public information law requires all public institutions to employ PPID officers.

However, Central Information Commission (KIP) commissioner Arif Adi Kuswardono said some institutions do not hire PPID officers as full-time employees.

He added that only 83 percent of all public institutions have hired PPID officers. Although all ministries and provincial administrations have assigned officers, 77 state institutions, 59 regency and three city administrations have not yet established PPID teams.

“The awareness of the importance of data and information also remains low. There are also no incentives given to people who are hired as PPID officers. This makes institutions reluctant to allocate a bigger budget,” Arif said.

According to the KIP, its participation in ensuring open access to public information stood at 62.8 percent last year, lower than the 70 percent target set by the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas).

Arif argued that the 2008 law was outdated and needed some revisions to push for more participation among institutions.

“It will not be easy to revise the law, but I suggest that we shorten the time span between the request and provision of information. Institutions also need to digitalize their archives and make use of their data in designing policies,” he said.

The AJI agreed, although it noted that a similar study involving more institutions was necessary to get a more comprehensive look at Indonesia’s disclosure of public information.

“Sometimes the problem does not lie in institutions’ reluctance to disclose their data, but that there is no data in the first place because of the absence of an archival system,” Abdul said. (ars)

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