Public procurement activities are a routine function for the government. The procurement of goods, services, and construction works takes place on a daily basis, often involving complex and lengthy procedures. This complexity hinders  citizens’ ability to oversee public procurement processes. Yet it is the citizens who are directly affected by poor work quality and project implementation by vendors. In the most severe cases, partly due to weak government oversight, poor performance can even result in fatalities.

Public participation is therefore essential to ensuring the quality and integrity  of public procurement outcomes. The government can encourage such participation by providing effective reporting channels that citizens can use to raise concerns about procurement anomalies.  

The complaint-reporting mechanism is regulated under Article 77(1) of Presidential Regulation No.46 of 2025 (PR 46/2025) concerning the Second Amendment to Presidential Regulation No.16 of 2018 on Public Procurement. According to this regulation, citizens may submit written complaints to Government Internal Auditors (APIP, Aparat Pengawas Intern Pemerintah), supported by factual, credible, and authentic evidence. Furthermore, Article 77 paragraph (7) of PR 46/2025 mandates the National Public Procurement Agency (LKPP, Lembaga Kebijakan Pengadaan Barang/Jasa Pemerintah) to develop a system for responding to public procurement-related complaints.

With this mechanism in place, in 2023 Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) invited civil society actors, including activists, journalists, student press organizations, students, and individual citizens, to actively participate in procurement oversight activities. The aim was to build their knowledge of public procurement and strengthen their capacity in monitoring, report drafting, and case advocacy. 

Reflecting on experiences from 2021-2022, ICW identified significant gaps in public knowledge and technical capacity in drafting a complaint report. As a result, of the 123 reports submitted to the LKPP, 62.6 percent were rejected due to insufficient supporting evidence.

Given this context, ICW sought to improve the quality of complaint-handling mechanisms in three regions: Maros Regency, Kupang City, and Semarang City. ICW collaborated with local partners in each region, YASMIB, Bengkel APPeK, dan PATTIRO Semarang, and engaged APIP in the respective local governments to advance policy reform in complaint handling for public procurement.