Emphasising Transparency and Immigration System Improvements, Commission XIII of the DPR Urges Evaluation of SDUWHV

Deputy Chair of Commission XIII of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Dewi Asmara, is pushing for a thorough evaluation of the Support Letter service for Work and Holiday Visa (SDUWHV) issued by the Directorate General of Immigration, following various technical obstacles in the application process. During a Hearing Meeting (RDP) attended by the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia and representatives of registrants, Dewi highlighted the issue of system downtime during quota openings, which was deemed detrimental to the public. She emphasised that the evaluation should not be limited to third parties or vendors but must serve as internal introspection for Immigration, including improvements to standard operating procedures (SOP) for system maintenance. “We hope that Immigration reduces its dependence on third parties by organising a dedicated work unit responsible for the maintenance and sustainable development of the system,” Dewi stated, as quoted from a written statement received on Thursday (9/4). Furthermore, Dewi pointed out the lack of integration of the SDUWHV service into the National Electronic-Based Government System Architecture (SPBE). She assessed that the digitalisation of public services should facilitate the public, not create obstacles such as manual and repetitive document upload processes. The meeting also discussed the status of 5,334 applicants who secured quotas after the system disruption. With notes from the National Cyber and Crypto Agency regarding the suboptimal system logs, Dewi stressed the importance of transparency to avoid negative speculation. “To dispel negative allegations and ensure that these 5,334 names are purely affected by the downtime, Commission XIII urges the Ombudsman of Indonesia to complete the audit of the SDUWHV implementation no later than 30 April 2026 as evaluation material,” she asserted. Further, Dewi also requested the Minister of Immigration and Community Empowerment through the Director General of Immigration to immediately evaluate the performance of officers in the Directorate of Visas and Travel Documents as well as the Directorate of Immigration Information Technology, which are suspected of maladministration. Through this forum, Commission XIII of the Indonesian House of Representatives hopes that improvements in information technology governance within Immigration can be quickly realised, making services to the public more fair, transparent, and accountable.