Jakarta – Aryanto Nugroho, National Coordinator of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia was present as a resource person in the Discussion on Monitoring the Implementation of the Ombudsman Law organized by the Center for Monitoring the Implementation of Laws, Expertise Agency, Secretariat General (Setjend) of the House of Representatives (DPR) RI, on January 13, 2023, located on the 6th Floor, Setjend DPR RI Building, Senayan, Jakarta. This discussion is a series of activities to collect data and information to monitor the implementation of Law No. 37/2008 on the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia (Ombudsman Law), regarding the norms and implementation of the Ombudsman Law.
The Ombudsman RI Law itself is the legal umbrella for the establishment of the Ombudsman RI, a state institution that has the authority to oversee the implementation of public services both organized by state and government administrators including those organized by State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), Regional-Owned Enterprises (BUMD), and State-Owned Legal Entities as well as private entities or individuals assigned the task of organizing certain public services, some or all of which are sourced from the state revenue and expenditure budget and/or regional revenue and expenditure budget. Thus, the Ombudsman RI is an external supervisory institution whose existence is expected to be able to control the duties of State and government organizers in the delivery of public services and law enforcement. One of the duties of the Ombudsman RI is to examine reports of alleged maladministration in the delivery of public services.
The Ombudsman RI Law has been implemented for approximately 14 (fourteen) years, and there are great expectations from the public for the Ombudsman RI to be able to oversee the improvement of the quality of public services. However, there are still public service providers who delay public services, deviate from administrative procedures, or public service providers who do not provide services in the fields of land, police, education, and other fields. There are a number of obstacles and challenges faced in the implementation of the Ombudsman Law, both from the aspects of legal substance/norms, legal/institutional structure, funding, facilities and infrastructure, and legal culture.
Aryanto conveyed a number of fundamental problems of public services today, namely the absence of conformity of public services with the principles of public services, “fair” and “equitable” access to public services, especially for people in remote areas or vulnerable categories of society (including quality aspects), not yet “fair” and “equitable” complaint handling mechanisms, and minimal public participation.
“Thus, it is important to strengthen the Ombudsman RI through revision/amendment of the Ombudsman RI Law,” Aryanto explained.
Aryanto also conveyed a number of suggestions and input for improving the Ombudsman RI Law. Among them, the need to adjust the Ombudsman RI Law with Law Number 25 of 2009 concerning Public Services (Public Service Law), clarify the position of the Ombudsman RI with a number of other internal and external supervisory institutions, clarify the definition of “Reported”, the need for clarity in the division of duties and authority of the Ombudsman RI at the Center with Representatives, and efforts to ensure that the recommendations of the Ombudsman RI can be obeyed by public service provider agencies.
Aryanto proposed to apply the sanction of “administrative default” to officials of public service providers who do not implement the recommendations of the Ombudsman RI, where these officials will lose their administrative rights, for example, loss of benefits, loss of housing facilities or official cars or others. Aryanto also suggested that before the implementation of the “administrative default” sanction, a transition period of two or three years is needed for socialization and to develop the mechanism. (AN)