In the past 10 years, 53% of public tenders in Indonesia were about constructions. It is recorded that there had been a 50% increase in the number of corruption cases in infrastructure projects in Indonesia between 2015 and 2018. In 2020, Indonesia carried out 48.83% tender on infrastructure (36,871 tender) from the total of 75,326 tender. In total during 2020, the award value for all infrastructure tenders is IDR 183.77 trillion (USD 12.8 billion).

This report brings public contracting trends/patterns linked to competition, efficiency, participation, and integrity and examines how data disclosed and made available on the Opentender platform are being used thus far.

The portal includes easy-to-use analytics tools that allow anyone to look at corruption risks and other indicators associated with public procurement performance, such as competition, efficiency, and value for money.

A training on anti-corruption held by ICW and LKPP on June 19, 2019, at Aston Bojonegoro City Hotel, saw a room filled by Bojonegoro-based journalists. As the participants, they discussed various government projects that might be prone to corrupt practices. They also learned about the opentender.net platform that ICW had developed – one of the website’s features allows public users, including journalists, to see the risk level of fraud of a government project.

The revitalization of Dander Water Park in Bojonegoro Regency, East Java, last 2015 and 2016 attracted public interest. The project had hefty price tags of IDR 6.5 billion (around USD 485 thousand) for its 2015 construction and IDR 4.6 billion (around USD 342 thousand) in 2016 and was envisioned to be a local revenue generator for the regency. Instead, Dander Park development was rife with questions of possible budget fraud according to the analysis of opentender.net platform developed by ICW.

It had never occurred to Ririn Wedia that her life could be akin to a roller coaster ride as it did during the three months prior to November 2019. In that crucial period, Ririn, a journalist of Suara Banyu Urip, was abandoned by her teammates in the middle of their investigation into Dander Park development project. But more than the betrayal, she also received threats from the people who were upset with her reporting. Under the mounting pressure, Ririn’s months of hard work culminated with the eventual publication of her story on November 8, 2019. Moved, Ririn said, “I’ve been a journalist for ten years, and I’ve never written anything like this.” Her eyes glistened with tears.