Ombudsman Uncovers Alleged Maladministration in Australia's 2025 Work and Holiday Visa Support Letter Selection
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Republic of Indonesia Ombudsman has uncovered allegations of maladministration in the implementation of the selection process for the Support Letter for Work and Holiday Visa (SDUWHV) Australia 2025, carried out by the Directorate General of Immigration under the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.
Ombudsman RI member Jemsly Hutabarat, during a meeting with Commission XIII of the House of Representatives (DPR RI) at the parliamentary complex in Senayan, Jakarta on Wednesday, stated that these allegations of maladministration are initial findings from the Ombudsman’s examination.
“The aspects we audited include the legal basis, policies, human resource performance, procedures, service quality, and principles of public service. We have audited all of these; we just need to await the conclusions after the second stage of technology audit,” he said.
Jemsly explained that the alleged maladministration in the implementation of Australia’s 2025 SDUWHV is based on the Ombudsman’s initial findings, encompassing procedural deviations, neglect of legal obligations, and abuse of authority.
Regarding procedural deviations, some findings include the alleged inadequacy of the SDUWHV application’s readiness before public use. The application system is said to lack sufficient strength in terms of security and load capacity.
Additionally, application mitigation is reportedly not well-planned, leading to sudden rate limiting or restrictions on the number of incoming requests to the system, and risk management is allegedly not fully compliant with standards.
“Risk controls were not implemented for potential digital government risks that have already been established under Ministry of State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform Regulation Number 5 of 2020,” he said.
Meanwhile, the neglect of legal obligations is allegedly due to the absence of clear and officially documented mechanisms for system management, including how changes are approved before system implementation.
“The handling of SDUWHV application network disruptions is not supported by standardised procedures. Application maintenance has not been carried out in a structured manner, evidenced by the lack of formal documents for preventive and adaptive maintenance,” he added.
As for the alleged abuse of authority, the system administrator’s role in the SDUWHV service has broader powers to directly alter most user data.
“Without clear segregation of duties. So, the admin role has greater authority. This makes it highly prone to abuse of authority,” he said.
“At the latest by 29 April 2026, we will directly submit the final inspection report,” Jemsly added.
This examination of the alleged maladministration is an initiative of the Ombudsman’s own accord, following public reports received and follow-up from the meeting with Commission XIII of DPR RI in November 2025.
Meanwhile, Eko Budianto, Director of Visas and Travel Documents at the Directorate General of Immigration, who was also present at the meeting, expressed thanks for the audit of the 2025 SDUWHV implementation conducted by the Ombudsman and BRIN.
“In principle, we are ready to evaluate and improve based on several notes, with a significant systemic percentage. We will conduct evaluations and improvements going forward,” Eko said.