Disclose information related to COVID-19 budget (ID0125)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Since the COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared a national disaster in Indonesia in March 2020, the Indonesian Government has allocated a budget for handling COVID-19 amounting to 677.20 trillion. There are various components in the budgeting including health, social protection, housing incentives for low-income people, business incentives, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises support corporate financing, and sectoral assistance Ministry / Institution and local governments. In supporting effective budget management, the Government has developed an information portal related to the budget for handling COVID-19 on the page http://www.kemenkeu.go.id/covid19. The information portal provides various infographics and regulations associated with managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. However, information related to the realisation of the COVID-19 budget at the central and local government levels is not yet accessible for the public. What is the commitment? COVID-19 budget handling disclosure provides the public information about the realisation of funds regarding COVID-19 at the national and regional level How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? One of the causes of the ineffectiveness of the COVID-19 budget is the lack of community involvement in monitoring and supervising. The COVID-19 budget information portal that can provide detailed information will help the public 57 participate in the monitoring and implementation process. Supervision of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency budget is needed because such huge budget allocation is prone to abuse and corruption. Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? This more detailed COVID-19 budget information portal departs from the public's need to obtain information regarding the realisation of a more comprehensive budget. Community involvement will minimise the COVID19 budget implementation's ineffectiveness, especially in the monitoring and supervision process. Budget transparency is in line with the value of Open Government, in which information disclosure will be the basis for realising an open and participatory government. In other words, it supports the value of transparency and participation. Why is this commitment relevant to Indonesian Medium-Term National Development Plan (RPJMN) and SDGs? This program is related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target No. 16: "Strengthening an Inclusive and Peaceful Society for Sustainable Development, Providing Access to Justice for All, and Building Effective, Accountable, and Inclusive Institutions at All Levels", especially on targets 16.6: Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels and Targets 16.10 Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, following national regulations and international agreements. In the 2020-2024 RPJMN, the culture of transparency and accountability in governance is one of the fulcrums of one of the national agendas, namely the Mental Revolution and Cultural Development. In addition, transparency, and accountability for the use of state expenditures are also one of the Rules for Implementing Development, which is realized through the development of integrated systems and data in planning, budgeting, and evaluation documents through the same and up to date database. Additional information. - Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable Start Date End Date 58 1. The availability of information on the realisation of the response and recovery budget for the COVID-19 in the regions (in the APBD - Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget) that has been audited through the developed portal. January 2021 December 2022 2. The availability of information on realisation of response and recovery budget for the Covid-19 pandemic in the central government that has been audited through the developed portal. January 2021 December 2022

Action Plan Review

Commitment 15: Information Portal on COVID-19 Response and Recovery Budget

For a complete description of the commitment, see Commitment 15 in Indonesia’s 2020–2022 action plan.

Context and objectives:

In Indonesia, the government has allocated a COVID-19 response budget of Rp 695.2 trillion ($48.9 billion), constituting 4.3% of GDP. [25] Within this budget, there have already been cases of corruption and there is a severe continued risk of misuse of funds, which can be partially allayed by supporting systematic public monitoring. However, preceding this commitment, the Ministry of Finance’s information portal on the COVID-19 response did not include key budgetary disclosures. To address this gap, the National Secretariat of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Seknas FITRA), the Regional Center for Research and Information (PATTIRO), the Indonesia Budget Center, and the World Bank led development of this commitment to offer, via the portal, public access to relevant budgetary information from the central government budget (APBN) and local government budget (APBD).

This commitment aligns with the OGP value of transparency by offering public access to previously inaccessible budgetary information. It builds on commitments in the last two action plans, which established Indonesia’s online budget data portal and attempted to improve the quality of budgetary disclosures on education, health, and poverty alleviation.

Potential for Results: Substantial

Indonesia’s COVID-19 response budget comprises support to the health care sector, social assistance to low-income households, tax relief, capital injections into state-owned enterprises, and interest subsidies, credit guarantees, and loan restructuring funds for micro, small, and medium enterprises. [26] Last year’s corruption scandal related to the distribution of COVID-19 aid [27] underscores the need for budgetary transparency, particularly given the budget’s size and vital importance to Indonesia’s recovery. [28]

Under this commitment, offering public access to information on the ongoing COVID-19 response budget and spending in the central government and the APBD could, according to PATTIRO, use public monitoring as an anticorruption tactic. [29] Prior to this commitment, the only available access to this information was through slide decks presented at the Ministry of Finance’s monthly press conferences, [30] which are not widely attended by the public. [31] Through this commitment, the ministry will publish online budgetary information on COVID-19 spending on a monthly basis, along with infographics. The ministry is considering disaggregating data by region. Integrating this information into the ministry’s online portal will allow for data downloads, Excel compatibility, and comparability with historical data. (However, this portal will only include data from the period following the portal’s launch date. [32]) Overall, this commitment could substantially improve the public accessibility to COVID-19 response budget information.

While it is difficult to be certain how citizens will engage with this information, civil society and the media have previously leveraged access to budgetary information to successfully generate public interest in government spending. For example, in 2017, the public scrutinized the Provincial Government of Jakarta after media and civil society reports revealed that the increased education budget for 2018 was allocated mostly for salary, building renovations, and office support, as opposed to initiatives that would improve education in the province. [33]

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation:

It is vital that implementation of this commitment begin as soon as possible, given the amount of ongoing COVID-19 response spending. To achieve a substantial impact, implementation will require monthly disclosures of complete and detailed COVID-19 budgetary information, including itemized costs of all activities. Open Government Indonesia notes that it may be difficult to disclose budgetary information on a monthly basis due to the audit process. Previously, inconsistent disclosure policies within government were also an obstacle to action plans’ efforts to improve fiscal transparency. For this commitment, an additional challenge may be engaging citizens, civil society, and media in oversight once budgetary information is disclosed. Inclusion of local government data may also pose a challenge, given the audit process, according to Open Government Indonesia. [34] The following recommendations would increase the efficacy of the commitment:

Results Report

Commitment 15. Information Portal on COVID-19 Response and Recovery Budget

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Substantial

● Completion: Substantial

● Did it open government? Marginal

This commitment improved publication of COVID-19 response and recovery budget information but did not publish the audited budget data as intended. ^[131] In 2020 and 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ portal provided annual general data on COVID-19 response and recovery budget expenditure for every regency/city and provincial government, but none in 2022. ^[132] From 2020 to 2022, the Ministry of Finance published weekly budget expenditure information of the national government’s COVID-19 recovery effort (PEN) which covered health, community protection, and economic recovery programs. This was an improvement in terms of regular data publication. However, the portal publishes summary budget information rather than offering detailed datasets, making it difficult to use for public monitoring, according to Fitra. ^[133] Furthermore, an International Budget Partnership assessment found the disclosed information disaggregated, fragmented, and incomplete. [134] During the implementation process, the Ministry of Finance held one coordination meeting with civil society stakeholders, [135] but overall, did not offer sufficient opportunities for consultation. [136]