Co-creation between government and civil society is a key to disclose the beneficial ownership (BO) data. This notion was delivered by Raden Siliwanti, Coordinator of Open Government Indonesia in the session on “How Governments and Civil Society can Collaborate to Improve Beneficial Ownership Disclosure”, one of the parallel discussion in the Global Conference on Beneficial Ownership Transparency held in Jakarta on the last 24 October.

The role of civil society in the development process has accommodated by Law No. 25/2004 on the National Development Planning System. Siliwanti continued that, the role of CSO needs to be improved in monitoring and evaluating the performance of government as well as supporting the government in formulating a policy which’s in line with the needs of the people.

Edi Effendi Tedjakusuma, Team Leader of EITI Indonesia who’s also spoke as a panelist, said that the government and civil society has collaborated in the EITI implementation in Indonesia, particularly through the establishment of multi stakeholder group which doesn’t only consist of government and civil society, but also include the business entities.

“On the regard of BO data disclosure, civil society has taken a part since the formulation of the road map of BO transparency in the extractive industries. Besides of public participation, critical aspects needed to pursue BO openness are database system development and supported regulation. Therefore, the draft of presidential decree on BO shall be immediately passed”, continued Edi.

Also presented in the session is Aryanto Nugroho, Manager of Advocacy and Network of Publish What You Pay Indonesia also the civil society representative in the MSG EITI Indonesia. Aryanto emphasized the newest EITI Standard which oblige an active and effective public participation in the whole process of EITI implementation. Participation shall be defined substantively in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation process. In another hand, the government have to ensure an environment which enables public participation.

The similar point also raised by Wahyudi Thohary, representative from Transparency International Indonesia (TII). “Citizen and also local organization need to be empowered in promoting transparency as well as dismantling corruption which hides behind a closed and complex corporate ownership structure”, said Wahyudi. [RG]