Public information openness has become the government’s moral responsibility and a form of concern for the nation, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said.
“Do not let our country be flooded and dominated by untrue information,” she said at a webinar on public information openness followed online from Jakarta on Thursday.
According to the minister, false information is continuously being produced and fabricated by parties who do not want Indonesia to focus on developing the nation, maintain its unity and integrity, and transform into a developed, just, and prosperous country.
She lauded the units in the Finance Ministry that continued to provide information openness so that the public can get accurate, timely, and quality information about state finances.
“Our responsibility, morally and professionally, is to continue to fill the public space with data information and various narratives that do reflect the condition of the nation and the challenges it faces, in addition to the progress and achievements,” Indrawati said.
This is to ensure the public space is not filled with information that is inaccurate, a hoax, not credible, or twisted out of context.
The public has the right to obtain true, accurate, timely, and quality public information, she noted.
The Ministry of Finance is one of the first ministries to not only fulfill statutory obligations regarding information openness, but also monitor and evaluate information and the public’s response to the information provided.
This is a reflection of the ministry’s responsibility toward the public to continue to be transparent, open, and accountable, which is also one of the principles of governance.
“We believe transparency, openness, and accountability are very inherent principles of good governance and characterize the state treasury,” Indrawati said.
The National Public Information Openness Index (IKIP) has shown an increase in 2022 compared to the previous year, the Central Information Commission (KIP) informed earlier.
The IKIP score increased from 71.37 in 2021 to 74.43 in 2022, KIP’s Research and Documentation Head Rospita Vici Paulyn said during the IKIP National Assessment Council Forum here last week.
The score of 74.43 was better than the target score of 72 that was set nationally under the 2022 Mid-Term National Development Program (RPJMN).
In addition, the score was in the medium category out of the five categories in the IKIP’s score model: very bad, bad, medium, good, and very good.
The IKIP score was obtained from the average score in three dimensions, which comprised the physical and political dimension (74.53), economic dimension (74.84), and legal dimension (73.98).
The end score of 74.43 was obtained based on an evaluation by 306 expert informants from 34 provinces across Indonesia and 17 national expert informants comprising KIP’s internal and external elements.
“For the percentage, we took 70 percent from province and 30 percent from national,” Paulyn explained.
As per the survey, there were three provinces in the good category: West Java, which scored 81.93, Bali (80.99), and West Nusa Tenggara (80.49).
Source: Antara News