"Public transparency on (state) financial matters is mandatory in the Financial Law and Information Disclosure Act, and it could have a positive impact on the government and society," Minister Mulyani stated at the 2019 Public Information Openness seminar held at the Ministry of Finance office here on Monday.
One of the efforts on public transparency carried out by the ministry includes providing the official website and application of the Ministry of Finance's Information Management and Documentation Officer. Information provided by the website and application can be accessed and downloaded for free by all Indonesians.
Mulyani argued that the Ministry of Finance has contributed to fulfilling the community's rights in obtaining transparent, accurate, and credible information on the state finances by providing open information services.
"Accurate, credible, and detailed information and transparency is something that the public is entitled to obtain from the government, not only from the ministries, but also from all public institutions and agencies," she said.
Besides, she further said that the government is not only obliged to provide information, but also to educate the public on reading and absorbing information from the Finance Ministry's published data, especially regarding the state's finances.
Such education, Mulyani continued, will also minimize the people's misinterpretation on financial data, especially among those who do not have sufficient knowledge in the financial field.
"The challenge is not only presenting the data, but also educating the people on understanding the data. Many don't understand the data presented, so we will also improve the qualitative analysis," said Sri Mulyani.
The minister also admitted that it would be very risky nowadays to keep open the state's financial data without providing education on understanding it due to the rise of misinformation that can sometimes cause confusion in the society.
"I expect that all the staff of the Ministry of Finance has the passion to not only provide information but to also combat the misinformation," she concluded.
EDITED BY INE
Translator: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
Editor: Eliswan Azly
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
