Public Consultation Reform (ID0100)

January 2019 - December 2020
Commitment Description
Lead implementing
agency/actor
Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform
People usually find difficulties to access public
services, meanwhile, it is known that the government
has received many complaints and even
recommendations from society. Regarding this, Public
Consultation Forum needs to be implemented as
mandated in the Minister of Administrative and
Bureaucratic Reform Regulation Number 16/2017 on
Guidelines on Public Consultation Forum in the Public
Services Unit, supported by Circular Letter No.
56/2017 on Establishment of Public Consultation
Forum in Public Services.
The regulation mandates each of government
institutions that carry out public services to implement
the Public Consultation Forum as a platform for
people participation in improving public services.
Moreover, all government institutions that carry out
public services are required to have Public
Consultation Forum as a form of public involvement in
public service management. To support the
implementation, several documents must be made,
such as 1. Regulation of public service; 2. Standard of
services; 3. Monitoring and evaluation of public
service management; 4. Rewarding; 5. Community
satisfaction survey; and 6. Other regulation related to
public service.
The implementation of Public Consultation Forum
should be done with face to face interaction such as
joint meeting, focus group discussion, public hearing,
academic workshop, and development planning
conference. It also can be done indirectly by radio
communication, a talk show on television, social
media, online application, and survey and complaint
channel.
The commitment was previously included in Open
Government National Action Plan 2016-2017.
However, based on data from Ministry of
Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, there has
not been any ministry or public institution that
performs Public Consultation Forum. This resulted in
the commitment to be included in the National Action
Plan 2018-2020 to encourage public participation.
Bolstering the Grand Challenge of Open Government Indonesia, this commitment aims for the Public
Consultation Forum to be implemented in three
sectors, which are, Ministry of Education and Culture,
Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Social Affairs.
Public Consultation Forum commitment appears twice
in Open Government National Action Plan. In National
Action Plan 2018-2020, Public Consultation Forum will
focus on the socialization specifically in ministries and
institutions level, along with registering government
institutions which had already implemented Public
Forum.
Public Consultation Forum should be done with face to
face interaction such as joint meeting, focus group
discussion, public hearing, academic workshop, and
development planning conference. It also can be done
indirectly by radio communication, a talk show on
television, social media, online application, and survey
and complaint channel. The list of stakeholders can be
involved are media, the private sector, woman
organization, civil society organization, and many
more. As pilot projects of Public Consultation Forum, it
will be focused on three sectors: Education, Health,
and Poverty Eradication.
What is the commitment?
The commitment is implemented by making a series of
meetings with ministries and institutions to immediately
initiate the forming of Public Consultation Forum,
followed by three steps of implementations which
consist of three phases, which are,
pre-implementation, implementation, and monitoring
and evaluation.
Those three steps mandate public consultation to be
done from the concept of formulation, problem-solving,
and up to monitoring and observing by society.
Furthermore, Ministry of Administrative and
Bureaucratic Reform created the list of ministries and
institutions that already have implemented the Public
Consultation Forum.
How will the commitment
contribute to solve the public
problem?
The commitment is relevant to the Open Government
Partnership values which are transparency, civic
participation, and accountability.
Why is this commitment relevant
to OGP values?
● Transparency is related to the quality of public
information disclosure and the people accessibility
for information.
● Civic participation where there is the openness of
the regulation-making process that involving
society with the various medium.
● Accountability in regulation or mechanism where
the government can hold responsible for every
regulation or decision it took. The manifestation of transparency is shown by the
opening of regulation data, program and
monitoring-evaluation result of public service
implementation that can be accessed by people before
attending the Public Consultation Forum. Then, the
public participation is shown in the Public Consultation
Forum enforcement in every ministries and institution
so that people could participate in the implementation
of public service. Furthermore, accountability is
actualized by Public Consultation Forum as a
mechanism where the government gives the response
to people’s opinions on public service delivery The commitment is in line with the achievement effort
of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) No. 16:
“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for
sustainable development, provide access to justice for
all and build effective, accountable and inclusive
institutions at all levels.” Especially on no. 16.7:
”Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and
representative decision-making at all levels” and on
no. 16.10: “Ensure public access to information and
protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with
national legislation and international agreements.” This
commitment shows an acknowledgment of the
importance of an open and participatory
decision-making mechanism in sustainable
development. 1. The socialization of Public
Consultation Forum to 90 national
and regional government
institutions
January 2019 December 2019
2. The development of the database
to support the monitoring and
evaluation of Public Consultation
Forum
September 2020 December 2020 3. The availability of three pilot
projects on Public Consultation
Forum in government institution
specifically in Ministry of Education
amd Culture, Ministry of Health, and
Ministry of Social Service January 2020 December 2020, Contact information
Other Actors
Involved
State actors
involved
1. Ministry of Education and Culture
2. Ministry of Health
3. Ministry of Social Service 4. Ministry of Home Affairs. CSOs, private
sector, multilaterals,
working groups
YAPPIKA-ActionAid

9. Implementation of Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Regulation Number 16/2017 on Guidelines on Public Consultation Forum Indonesian Government

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

Public Consultation Forum commitment appears twice in Open Government National Action Plan. In National Action Plan 2018–2020, Public Consultation Forum will focus on the socialization specifically in ministries and institutions level, along with registering government institutions which had already implemented Public Forum.

Public Consultation Forum should be done with face to face interaction such as joint meeting, focus group discussion, public hearing, academic workshop, and development planning conference. It also can be done indirectly by radio communication, a talk show on television, social media, online application, and survey and complaint channel. The list of stakeholders can be involved are media, the private sector, woman organization, civil society organization, and many more. As pilot projects of Public Consultation Forum, it will be focused on three sectors: Education, Health, and Poverty Eradication.

Milestones:

1. The socialization of Public Consultation Forum to 90 national and regional government institutions.
2. The development of the database to support the monitoring and evaluation of Public Consultation Forum.
3. The availability of three pilot projects on Public Consultation Forum in government institution specifically in Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Social Affairs.

Start Date: January 2019                                                               End Date: December 2020

Context and Objectives

Laws No. 25/2004 on National Development Planning System ^[100] and No. 25/2009 on Public Services ^[101] mandate public participation in public service delivery. Additionally, the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform issued Ministerial Regulation No. 16/2017 on Public Consultation Forum for the Delivery of Public Service ^[102] to establish a standard mechanism for public participation across government institutions and Ministerial Circular No. 56/2017 on the Formation of Public Consultation Forum for the Delivery of Public Service ^[103] to reiterate the need for all government institutions, national and local, to incorporate public consultations in providing public services.

Similar to the prior plan’s commitment on public consultation forums, this commitment encourages government institutions to conduct public forums when delivering public services. The objective of this commitment is for the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform to promote a public consultation forum mechanism to a total of 90 government institutions at both the national and local level, to develop a database to monitor and evaluate its implementation across government institutions, and to facilitate three pilot projects with the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Social Affairs. The government noted that the socialization process is carried out to target government agencies gradually in three geographical divisions: western, central, and eastern regions. The government sets two basic rules for these forums: (a) focus on generating solutions for particular problems and (b) signing of a mutual commitment between the institution and the forum to follow up on the suggested plan of action. Additionally, implementation of these forums by government ministries/agencies as well as local governments will be included as a factor in the performance evaluation conducted by the Ministry for its public service index.

As indicated in the previous IRM report, ^[104] public consultation forums are already a common practice across government institutions. In terms of regulation, the Ministry has set a mechanism that includes a set of possible format of the forum as well as the manners in which each institution has to report the results of the public consultation forums for evaluation purposes to the Ministry [105]. These reports will then be used to formulate improvement to existing policies. However, there is inconsistency in terms of what has been communicated to local stakeholders, such as in a socialization activity for local governments on 20 April 2017 [106] where local government stakeholders noted that they have already been implementing consultation forums across different sectors of public service. In response to this, the Ministry encouraged them to continue as is without suggesting any changes that would standardize the implementation.

A representative from YAPPIKA-ActionAid, a CSO that focuses on monitoring public service delivery, confirmed that public consultation is common in government at all levels. ^[107] Many institutions conduct consultations to hear public needs for public service delivery although they are often called different names. Village governments, for example, organize village forums (Musdes) and village development planning forums (Musrenbangdes) in developing annual work and budget plans. The IRM researcher also found established forums among other government entities, such as water resource public consultation meetings with the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, [108] and the “Sonjo Pendopo” weekly meeting between citizens and the Regent of Trenggalek in East Java. [109]

Given the different manifestations of public consultation, YAPPIKA-ActionAid therefore emphasized that the necessity is for the government to establish a clear and standardized mechanism for public consultation forums in accordance with the best practices. ^[110] The commitment further aims to establish a database of government institutions with public consultation forum activities and facilitate a pilot project for public consultation forum in three ministries. By developing the database, the Ministry hopes to actively monitor and evaluate public consultation forum implementation.

Next Steps

The public consultation forum is not an uncommon practice for government institutions in Indonesia. This commitment however does not go beyond existing measures. The commitment’s milestones focus on promotional activities despite evidence indicating the practice is already widespread across government, albeit using different names and mechanisms.

To improve public services by engaging citizens though public forums, the Ministry should consider action in these two areas:

• Closely monitor and facilitate the implementation of public consultation forums that are compliant with the mechanisms set by the corresponding Ministerial Regulation; and
• Create a regulation that requires government institutions to provide reasoned response as a follow-up to citizen input received during forums. The Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform can factor this into the overall evaluation of public service delivery by government institutions.

[100] Government of Indonesia, “Undang-Undang No. 25/2004 tentang Sistem Perencanaan Pembangunan Nasional” (2004), https://kemenag.go.id/file/dokumen/UU252004.pdf.

[101] Government of Indonesia, “Undang-Undang No. 25/2009 tentang Pelayanan Publik” (2009), http://pelayanan.jakarta.go.id/download/regulasi/undang-undang-nomor-25-tahun-2009-tentang-pelayanan-publik.pdf.

[102] Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, “Peraturan Menteri No. 16/2017 tentang Pedoman Penyelenggaraan Forum Konsultasi Publik di Lingkungan Unit Penyelenggara Pelayanan Publik” (2017), https://jdih.menpan.go.id/data_puu/16%20final.pdf.

[103] Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, "Surat Edaran No. 56/2017 tentang Pembentukan Forum Konsultasi Publik dalam Rangka Penyelenggaraan Pelayanan Publik" (2017), https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HsWFpbaFZ0B0qu7vuXVrbe0qYhxM34K_/view.

[104] Open Government Partnership, “Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Indonesia End-of-Term Report 2016–2017” (2019), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Indonesia_End-of-Term_Report_2016-2017_EN.pdf.

[105] Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, “Peraturan Menteri No. 16/2017.”

[106] Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, “Laporan Penyelenggaraan Rapat Sosialisasi Forum Konsultasi Publik Nasional 20 April Tahun 2017” (2017), 3–5, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NF-02cPVNcSTUxG_852y_mwbPwxCqTf0/view.

[107] Hendrik Rosdinar (YAPPIKA-ActionAid), interview by IRM researcher, 9 Mar. 2019.

[108] Ministry of Housing and Public Works, “PKM” (accessed 27 Jun. 2019), http://sda.pu.go.id/bbwsbengawansolo/portal/index.php/tag/pkm/.

[109] Bramanta Pamungkas, "Sonjo Pendopo, Ajang Pertemuan Masyarakat dengan Bupati Trenggalek" (Jatim Now, 2019), https://jatimnow.com/baca-16990-sonjo-pendopo-ajang-pertemuan-masyarakat-dengan-bupati-trenggalek.

[110] Hendrik Rosdinar (YAPPIKA-ActionAid), interview by IRM researcher, 9 Mar. 2019.

9. Implementation of Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Regulation Number 16/2017 on Guidelines on Public Consultation Forum Indonesian Government

Substantial:

In 2019, the Ministry of Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform conducted a coaching clinic on public service standards for representatives of nearly one hundred district and city governments in Aceh, North Sumatra, Bengkulu, West Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, Bangka Belitung, and West Java. [68] In terms of the monitoring and evaluation database, a Google Sheet established in 2017 (prior to the implementation period) published information on a portion of public consultation forums, including the agency, work unit, and team responsible for each forum; the scope of each forum; and an action plan for implementing the forum results. [69] Evaluations were also conducted to assess public services and community involvement in development of service standards at the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Social Affairs. Overall, preceding the implementation period, public consultation forums were already a common practice across government institutions, with 153 taking place in 2018. The number of forums fluctuated during the implementation period, rising to 235 in 2019 and dropping to 105 in 2020, with COVID-19 restricting in-person meetings. [70]