”Akuntabilitas!” is the mainstay and colourful program conducted by JPIP with the direct support of USAID. This program is a part of the Strengthening Integrity and Accountability Program (SIAP) II of USAID. The aim of the program is to enhance the awareness of local people on financial accountability, transparency, public service, anti-corruption, judicial reform, and bureaucratic reform. The program is combining activities at local level, transferring knowledge and lesson learned, connecting state agencies closely to local people and media coverage. JPIP also develops a good network with local media, for instance Cendrawasih Pos in Papua, Kaltim Pos in Samarinda, Sumut Pos in Medan, Radar Jogja in Jogja, Padang Ekspres, Indo Pos in Jakarta, Bandung Express, Rakyat Aceh, Radar Bali, and Radar Mataram. To achieve the above program objectives, a number of related activities are designed to support the success of the program. This program mainly includes writing about state agencies that are easy to read and comprehensible by the wider community, establishing a network of media personnel who care about the accountability of state agencies through the formation of regional coordinators, careful observation of accountability issues, publications. In addition, JPIP also encourages the openness of state agencies to appear more accountable to the public through the mass media. To support the success of this program, there are a number of project components that are directly or indirectly related to this program.

The first component is the accountability column which is designed to be published in the Jawa Pos newspapers twice a month. And the publications of this column is expected to appear in the duration of two weeks. Themes in this column is adjusted to the actuality of issues from state agencies or based on developing issues in the community. The column design consists of two posts. The first post is the main article containing presentation of issues with a little news-style analysis, popular, easy to read and comprehensible for readers. The goal is to get closer various accountability issues in order to be well understood by the readers. While the second writing is the other side of what is described in the main article. It can also be interviews or opinions of figures related to the issues discussed. To monitor the level of responsiveness of the public (readers), at the bottom of this column, the email addresses for responses and criticisms are listed.

The second component of this program is the opinion column in Jawa Pos newspapers which provides information about an opportunity for anyone to express their views and ideas related to various issues and developing thoughts, which are outlined in the form of written articles. This Opinion column appears every day in Jawa Pos with various themes and issues, especially on Sundays it usually comes with different themes and styles. Regarding with this accountability program, Jawa Pos provides a special opportunity twice a month to raise accountability issues or themes related to this accountability program. The column writer is given the opportunity to evaluate state agencies related to the accountability issues as well as other related issues relevant to program. JPIP invites various NGO networks, academics, state agency personnel and active writers to write articles related to the theme of accountability. However, the general rules and writing criteria that apply in Jawa Pos remain the standard that must be met.

Through a series of seminars and workshops activities were held in the capital city of each province, JPIP invited and financed resource persons from state agencies to come to the location of seminars and workshops to deliver their insights and views on certain topics, while attendees were local people, particularly local journalists or local media men. For doing this activity, JPIP prepared any necessity, such as invitation letters to resource persons, approaching local media, and also determining the location for the seminar and workshop.

The program period is conducted from April 2012 to September 2014 for 13 provinces. JPIP is attempting to synergize the cooperation between the Judicial Commission (KY), the Ministry of Administrative Reform & Bureaucratic Reform (Kemenpan & RB), the Presidential Work Unit for Supervision and Control Development (UKP4), the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), the Central Information Commission (KIP), the State Audit and Development Agency (BPKP), and the Quality Assurance Team (TQA) with the media in Indonesia to contribute to each other in conveying information about integrity and accountability issues. There were a cooperation letter between JPIP and those state agencies in which the state agencies provided resource persons for seminars and workshops in each province. The letter of readiness was made by the state agencies to JPIP. The mechanism for the seminar and workshop is like this. Resource persons from representatives of state agencies are invited to take turns at the certain seminar and workshop locations. The board of JPIP in Surabaya decides certain state agencies representatives to be resource persons in seminar and workshop in certain province, and of course, JPIP later report it directly to USAID after the decision has been made. The first seminar and workshop was held in Surabaya, July 17-18, 2012. One of the speakers was Abdul Rahman Ma’mun, the chief of Komisi Informasi Pusat (KIP/ The Central Information Commission. According to Rahman, opennes and transparency were the keyword of bureaucratic reform and enhancing public service. The second seminar and workshop was conducted in Makassar, South Sulawesi, November 5-6, 2012. Mataram in West Nusatenggara was the third place for conducting seminar and workshop, January 8-9, 2013. And the consecutive seminars and wrokshops are shown on the list below.

Local invitees and local media were joined in the seminar and workshop, and they discussed some interesting topics on how importance accountability and integrity of public officials in providing public services.The speakers from state agencies explained those topics and showed actual cases, and on the following day after the seminar, there was a workshop for local journalists. That was a chance for local journalists to directly communicate with resource persons from state agencies, and they could share their contact with one another to continue their relations in the future.

After completing a seminar and workshop in a certain province, the JPIP researcher obligingly wrote the result of the seminar and published it in a column in the newspapers.

The writer of the column was in rotation among JPIP researchers. The JPIP office in Surabaya also became a hub for monitoring the accountability topic and issues on news coverage which published on media nationally and locally, sharing ideas, disseminating information and assisting people from state agencies to share their achievements with the public. 

During the program period going, JPIP also published some books on ”Akuntabilitas!”. The book was compiled from columns which had previously appeared in the newspapers. Then, those books were given for free to partners in the program, such as state agencies (BPK, BPKP, KIP, KY, ORI, UKP4, and KemenPANRB). 

Meanwhile, the relationship between JPIP team and local media men kept on going, moreover this mutual relationship grew dramatically and benefitted one another. The office of JPIP in Surabaya always informed updates situation to those journalists regarding accountability issues.

Don’t forget to share a critical and funny caricature via newspapers regularly weekly during the ongoing program. It was one of JPIP’s ways to share thoughts and insights with the public. JPIP wanted the public to catch a significant message through caricature. By doing so, it hoped that the public more aware of the current situation.