At the outset we must apologize for the late appearance of the 2018 end-of-year report of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW). Normally we go to press by March each year at the latest, coinciding with the publication of the audit report on ICW’s finances for the year in question.

 

The delay this time was not due to considerations relating to the audit, but rather because of two important issues confronting ICW. Firstly, 2018 was the final year of ICW’s strategic plan which had been in place since 2014. We needed to have an appraisal of whether or not the targets we had set for ourselves in that plan had been achieved. We acknowledge that the process of getting such an appraisal was a rather long one and its conclusion was that not all our specified targets had been met.

 

There were several factors contributing to that outcome. Among them was the fact that, when we formulated our targets, we did not factor in external considerations which proved to be very dynamic and unable to be controlled. In other words, our targets were too ambitious. For example, it was clearly unrealistic to expect to meet our targets relating to organization of the general public, given that ICW did not have offices at the grass roots level.

 

Another factor was that up to now we have not been as attentive as we should have been to processes relevant to recording, documenting and managing information on our various programs and anti-corruption advocacy efforts. As a result, when asked by an external evaluator to provide written evidence of claimed successes in our programs, we were unable to comply. Accordingly, the evaluator regarded what we termed achievements as being claims only.

 

At the end of the day, of course, we have to learn from our mistakes. We realize that it is important that management of our processes, achievements, successes, failures and indeed our various good practices has to include breakthroughs, new approaches and innovation. For this reason, in ICW’s draft strategic plan for 2018-2022 which has already been endorsed, we have made provision for strengthening ICW’s internal structure by establishing a new division dedicated to management of information and knowledge - what in modern jargon is called a Knowledge Management System (KMS).

 

The principal purpose of this new division is to manage all information and knowledge possessed by the organization, ensuring that it becomes an uninterrupted stream from the date of the ICW’s establishment to the present day; and to make that information and knowledge available, in a sustainable way, in specific formats to all constituent parts of ICW, to anti-corruption networks and to the public at large to assist the learning process.

 

It is hoped that this new division will strengthen ICW in its work of stimulating corruption eradication efforts, thereby bolstering community groups and anti-corruption networks in various places in Indonesia.

 

Jakarta, April 2019

2018 End of Year Report