Jakarta – The Central Information Commission (KIP) said Wednesday it was high time for state institutions to comply with an information law requiring them to have an impeded information officer tasked with ensuring the publication of project and budget plans.

"Currently, only 12 of the more than 120 public bodies located within the central government have such an officer," KIP head Ahmad Alamsyah Saragih said at the Communications and Information Techno-logy Ministry office on Wednesday.

He said KIP had addressed the problem by issuing a circular on March 12 urging government agencies to stop withholding information from the public.

"We have issued a formal letter ordering all public bodies to publish their annual work programs and budget plans," he said, adding that he expected the release of budgetary information to reduce the number of disputes about the implementation of budget plans.

He said that 23 of the 82 disputes handled by KIP from April to December last year concerned the content of budgetary and finance documents. "We hope the circular will help explain the whole matter and reduce the number of such disputes," Alamsyah said.

He said the circular was issued to encourage state bodies to comply with the 2008 Freedom of Information Law, which went into effect on August 23 last year. He set a deadline of Aug. 22 this year for all bureaucratic bodies to comply with the information officer requirement.

The Communications and Information Technology Ministry, the Development and Finance Comptroller, the Health Ministry, the Transportation Ministry, the Industry Ministry, the National Education Ministry, the House of Representatives, the National Police, and other government agencies had fulfilled the requirement, and that there was therefore no reason for other agencies to miss the deadline, Alamsyah said.

He said the apparent reluctance to comply with the law might be the result of confusion about the hierarchical positioning of the embedded information officer within the respective institutions.

He said that each agency would need to define a clear working scheme to facilitate the instituting of the transparent publication of reports. Alamsyah said there would be no penalties for agencies that missed the deadline.

"However, it will be problematic for them, because they will not be equipped with any official channels to address public demands for transparency," he said. (mim)