Jakarta – The government defended its stance Thursday to exclude public access to state enterprises, saying there existed already several regulations around the transparency of state-owned companies.

"There have been so many laws controlling state enterprises, including the state enterprises law, the corporation law and the capital market law," said Suprawoto, Head of the Public Information Agency at the Information and Communication Ministry.

"If (another law on state-owned companies) is included in the public information bill, these firms will become figuratively naked."

He said if state companies were included in the new bill, business strategies may be revealed to private companies, which could increase competition.

The public information bill would also see government-related information made open to the public to encourage good governance and anti-corruption efforts.

But coordinator for the Freedom of Information Coalition Lobby, Agus Sudibyo, said there was no reason for state enterprises to be excluded from the bill. "They fulfill all requirements as public institutions."

He explained there were two criteria for companies to be included as public institutions. "Their establishment and roles are regulated by a law and they are using and managing public funds," Agus said.

"Besides, we all know that there has been rampant corruption in the state-enterprises and most of them are experiencing losses. This will automatically burden the state budget to cover their losses."

He said this was reason enough for the public to want to know more about state-owned companies and their operations. "If the government is afraid that those companies will become naked, then they just (need to) specify in the law what things have to be closed to the public," Agus said.

Head of House Commission I overseeing defense and information affairs Theo L. Sambuaga said the legislators and the government had not decided either way to exclude state enterprises in the bill. "We will further discuss it in the next meeting, but we will stick to the key principle of maximum access and limited exception for public information."

Theo said they would also need to discuss the transition period for government institutions to adapt to the new law. "The government proposes three years but we want only two years," he said.

"We will also discuss punishment for government officials who violate the law. We have not decided whether to use criminal or administrative punishments."

He said they were discussing what information needed to be prohibited from public access and he was optimistic the bill would be passed by the end of the year. It has been "in discussion" for one-and-a-half years.