Moeldoko Discusses COVID-19 Data Transparency With Civil Society Organizations

Chief of Presidential Staff Moeldoko during an audience (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Chief of Presidential Staff Moeldoko discussed the transparency of COVID-19 data with civil society organizations (CSOs), virtually from the Situation Room of the Bina Graha Building Jakarta, Friday, June 25.

On this occasion, Moeldoko said that the government realized the importance of transparency and accountability for COVID-19 data. But the biggest challenge in collecting this data is sectoral ego.

"So the government will focus on discussing problems, no longer academic debates," said Moeldoko in a press release in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Friday, June 25.

He emphasized that President Joko Widodo would not remain silent in responding to data issues handling COVID-19, for example regarding several findings at the technical level regarding budget absorption and procurement delays. Moeldoko said that from the beginning the President had always reminded ministries and agencies to provide information quickly.

The point, said Moeldoko, is that the follow-up to these challenges requires coordination. For this reason, any directives or inputs that need to be directed by the President will be directly submitted to the President.

"Conditions like this, we need to get input from all parties," explained Moeldoko.

On the same occasion, Deputy II of the Presidential Chief of Staff, Abetnego Tarigan, added that coordination was also carried out by the central government and regional governments. Especially to update data, starting from budget absorption, hospital bed occupancy ratio (BOR), to the implementation of health protocols.

Secretary-General of Transparency International Indonesia (TII) Danang Widoyoko underlined the low absorption of the COVID-19 budget. He asked for transparency and more open data.

Meanwhile, Laporcovid-19 Scientific Collaborator Iqbal Elyazar hopes that the regional Health Office can always convey the latest developments, following the data in Jakarta.

He said that currently there are still incomplete case data, for example, case data in Central Java which is not equipped with testing and tracing data.

"Our hope is that there will be and display the number of daily testing and the percentage of cases per district/city," said Iqbal.

The Secretary-General of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) Misbah Hasan conveyed some of his findings. Starting from information about COVID-19 that is not in-depth, program commitments that are not balanced with accelerated implementation, to the realization of procurement of goods, which are still lacking in reports.