Law Number 14 Year 2008 concerning the Public Information Disclosure promulgated on 30 April 2008 mandates the implementation of public information disclosure by public body, both at national and sub-national. Although it has been effective since 2010, in fact the implementation has not run optimally. According to the evaluation carried out by Central Information Commission in 2018, only 104 of 460 public bodies (equivalent to 22.61%) has implemented the public information disclosure. While  the remaining 77% deemed have not fully implemented the mandate of Public Information Disclosure Law. The extractive industry is among the secretive sectors.

Transparency wave in the extractive industry has led to the disclosure of revenue information, yet licensing information is still hard to get. A number of civil society has requested contract and licensing information in the extractive industry, along with the growing public demand on a transparent and accountable extractive governance.

The Public Information Disclosure Law itself has explicitly stated that contract and licensing documents are open information, yet in practical level, public still has difficulty to obtaining such documents. In fact, if they succeed in getting the document, the process that goes through is protracted, for more than one year. The lack of contract and licenses openness is suspected as the reason behind the chaos of mining permit governance in Indonesia, such as overlapping permits, mining in conservation and protection areas, etc. No less important, this also makes it difficult for the public to carry out supervision, given the absence of key information regarding licensing.

Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia supported by Open Contracting program of Hivos initiated an effort to promote contract and license transparency in mining sector in West Nusa Tenggara Province, one of the biggest copper producing province in Indonesia. This initiative is specifically designed to push for mining contract and licensing documents disclosure and improve public participation in monitoring mining activities.

Interventions in the project will target two sides, namely the demand side by increasing public awareness of the importance of contract openness in the mining sector as the basis of supervision, as well as the supply side by assisting provincial government in opening contract and licensing documents. Therefore, the project will facilitate capacity building for impacted community to better understand the value chain of mining sector in general as well as mining contract and licensing documents in particular.

This project is part of the commitment of PWYP Indonesia in realizing a transparent and accountable extractive governance for equitable and sustainable development. Contract and license transparency is believed to be able to track the flow of revenue and reduce corruption practices. Moreover, the extractive industries contribute up to 53% of non-tax revenue in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) in 2018 (MEMR, 2019).

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