Disclosure of data and information from contract documents/licenses for mining oil and gas (oil and gas) as well as minerals and coal (minerba) is the key to the transparency and accountability of extractive industries. The study of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia in 2020 showed that the disclosure of contracts/licenses has a positive impact on improving governance in this sector—among other things—helping the government get a deeper agreement in the management of natural resources (SDA)—encouraging improvement in government management, reducing corrupt practices, increasing public trust in the government, encouraging economic growth and development, and increasing citizen participation in its management.

In the context of the legal framework in Indonesia, the openness of contracts/licenses has been guaranteed and regulated in Articles 28C and 28F of the 1945 Constitution concerning Human Rights, Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution concerning Natural Resources Management, and Law Number 14 of 2008 concerning Information Disclosure Public (UU KIP). UU KIP explicitly states that contract and licensing documents are open documents. However, the public still has difficulty accessing contract/permit documents.

The PWYP coalition, on a global level, has launched a #DiscloseTheDeal campaign at the end of 2020. The #DiscloseTheDeal campaign calls for all contracts and permits for the extraction of oil, gas, and mineral resources to be opened. Disclosure of contracts and licensing is a long-established priority for the PWYP movement and an opportunity for PWYP to move on to more of the global campaigns outlined in the Vision 2025 strategy.

The main aim of this campaign is that all contracts between the state and companies governing the exploitation of natural resources should be made public so that the public can monitor them. More specifically, the campaign has three initial objectives:

  1. The government must openly disclose all extractive contract and license documents, including their attachments and amendments.
  2. Countries that are members of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (EITI) must immediately fulfill their commitments to publish all contracts awarded, signed, or amended from January 1, 2021.
  3. Extractive companies must make a public statement of support for contract disclosure and actively promote it in all countries in which they operate.

PWYP Indonesia is a civil society coalition for transparency and accountability of extractive governance and other natural resources, which is also part of the PWYP Global coalition. Of course, it has a vital role in supporting the #DiscloseTheDeal campaign in Indonesia. To support this campaign, PWYP Indonesia runs the “#DiscloseTheDeal Advancing Contract Transparency in Indonesia” program, which has four main components, namely:

Component 1: Ensure that EITI Indonesia’s Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) implements contract/permit transparency requirements.

Component 2: Strengthening civil society representatives at the EITI Indonesia MSG in encouraging EITI contract/permit transparency implementation.

Component 3: Encouraging Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) or the public to obtain contract documents/permits through Law Number 14 of 2008.

Component 4: Encouraging contract transparency is one of the issues pushed in Indonesia’s Open Government Partnership (OGP).

DTD