"Without transparency, democracy cannot be achieved and without transparency, public participation cannot be facilitated," Jusuf Kalla said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla has urged all institutions to operate transparently for the public to see their performance towards developing a clean government and democracy.

"Without transparency, democracy cannot be achieved and without transparency, public participation cannot be facilitated," he said in his speech at the presentation of information transparency awards to public institutions at the state palace here on Friday.

Kalla stated that all institutions, including ministries, state offices, state-owned companies, political parties, universities and provincial governments, must adopt transparency to grant the public access to information to develop a clean government and democracy.

He added that transparency could lead institutions to be corruption-free as through it, the public can monitor their performance and output directly.

Setting up websites of ministries and state institutions could be one way to ensure transparency as "through them, people can directly find the information they seek," the vice president noted.

Moreover, Chairman of the Central Information Commission (KIP) Abdulhamid Dipopramono pointed out that every year, his institution ranked public services on the basis of how open they are about their information, as part of efforts to see their compliance in implementing the law on public information, or the KIP Law.

"The ranking system has been carried out since 2011 using a method that is always evaluated and developed," he affirmed.

According to Kalla, the KIP sent questionnaires for individual evaluation and conducted visits for interviews to ensure precise results and to prove how true a piece of information or a document is.

Based on the results, the Finance Ministry was ranked first, followed by the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Transportation, the State Secretariat, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Communications and Informatics, Ministry of Religious Affairs, and Ministry of Administrative Reform.

Under the category of state institutions, the first position was held by the National Archive Agency, which was followed by the National Family Planning and Population Agency, the Finance and Development Supervision Agency, the Constitutional Court, the Corruption Eradication Commission, the Investment Coordinating Board, the Supreme Court, the Judicial Commission, and the Government Service and Goods Procurement Policy Agency.

Under the provincial government category, the government of West Nusa Tenggara was ranked first, followed by those of Aceh, East Kalimantan, Banten, Bali, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Riau Islands, and East Java.

Furthermore, PT Bio Farma was ranked first under the category of state enterprises, followed by PT PLN, PT Taspen, PT Perusahaan Gas Negara, PT Bank Negara Indonesia, PT Kimia Farman, PT Jasa Raharja, PT Inti, PT Perkebunan Nusantara V, and PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia.

Under the political party category, Gerindra was ranked first, followed by PKS, PKB, and PAN.

Among higher learning institutes, Universitas Indonesia was ranked first, followed by Brawijaya University, Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Udayana University, Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic University, Nusa Cendana University, and Riau University.

Several cabinet ministers and a number of provincial governors attended the award presentation ceremony, including Transportation Minister Iganisius Jonan, Industry Minister Saleh Husen, and Agrarian Affairs Minister Ferry Mursyidan Baldan.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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