Why mandatory disclosures matter for Indonesia

The global transparency wave has reached Indonesia. Initiatives such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) are bringing more transparency to Indonesia and the mandatory disclosures laws of the EU have led to more data on extractive activities in Indonesia becoming available.

But the oil, mining and gas industries are still among the most corrupt sectors and accessing relevant data on the amount of production, marketing, shipment and payment of taxes and other company financial liabilities is difficult. In Indonesia, ranked 90th out of 176 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2016, the data from the three EITI reports published so far (between 2009 and 2013) is incomplete and out of date. Disclosing data will therefore not be enough to ensure accountability. The data also needs to used in a meaningful way by a range of stakeholders, including civil society.

In this case study, our Data Extractor from PWYP Indonesia used the disclosure of companies’ “payments to governments” data as an entry point to begin comparing the payments recorded by the parent company (listed on EU markets) with those received by the Indonesian government.

This case study was written by Meliana Lumbantoruan from PWYP Indonesia and is part of Publish What You Pay’s Data Extractors programme, a global initiative which trains PWYP members and activists from across our network to use extractives data.