16th KSF Brought Up the Theme on Public Sector Good Governance and Accountability

Knowledge Sharing Forum (KSF) activities which are regularly organized by Universitas Terbuka (UT) entered its 16^th series of the program. This time, the program brought up the theme on "Good Governance and Accountability of Public Sector: Finding the Formats of Public Accountability of Local Governments" held online through Microsoft Teams Live platform on Thursday (18/3/2021). The event was followed by 1,629 participants from both Indonesia and foreign countries, such as Brunei, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Timor Leste.

The presenters in the 16^th KSF are the 5^th Member of the Supreme Audit Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK RI), Prof. Dr. Bahrullah Akbar, MBA., CIPM., CA., CPA., CSFA., CFrA., CGCAE, and the Dean of Faculty of Economics, Indonesia Open University, Prof. Dr. Ali Muktiyanto, M.Si, and the moderator, Head of Accounting Department, Faculty of Economics, Indonesian Open University, Dr. Hendrian, M.Si.

The Rector of Indonesian Open University, Prof. Ojat Darojat, M.Bus., Ph.D., in his speech, stated that in the beginning of 2021, the management of the public sector’s accounting is a very crucial part for all parties, especially for UT in that it is closely related to the accountability as the values that we constantly uphold and abide by as well as the manners that we should provide good accountability report for the mandate given in better ways.

In the materials he presented, Prof. Dr. Bahrullah Akbar stated that the objectives of this KSF are to improve financial literacy, especially the finance, knowledge, skills, and techniques of the public sectors, as well as the confidence that would affect their attitudes and behaviors in order to improve the quality of decision making process coupled with good governance for the public sector’s finance. The public accountability poses some problems to the practitioners and academicians who seek to establish the accountability formats that are acceptable to all parties.

The following materials were presented by Prof. Dr. Ali Muktiyanto. He explained the Indonesia’s rank in the Corruption Perceptions Index has decreased constantly. Indonesia’s Accountability Index during the period of 1996 – 2019 has increased, yet the law enforcement or protection and control against corruption have been impaired if compared to the previous years. In anyway, the objectives of the public organizations are non-profit or non-commercial as they are the main objectives to serve the general public. It is necessary to bear in mind that the public organizations do not belong to a private person and, instead, they belong to the people in general collectively and, therefore, the management of the public organizations would eventually demand accountability to the public.