Berau, East Kalimantan — Village fund management in Sei Bebanir Village, Sambaliung District, Berau Regency, East Kalimantan, shows that strong administrative compliance does not automatically guarantee transparency and effective public oversight. The finding comes from Ahmad Juhri, Teguh Priyo Sadono, and Rachmawati Novaria of the Doctoral Program in Administrative Science, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya, in a study published in 2026. The research is particularly relevant because Sei Bebanir is located in an area shaped by coal mining and oil palm plantations, where village governance involves government institutions, local communities, customary authorities, and corporate actors.
The study highlights a common challenge in village financial governance. Performance is often judged through financial reports, budget absorption, and reporting deadlines. Yet accountability also depends on whether residents can access information, question government decisions, and participate in monitoring development projects. In Sei Bebanir, these challenges are amplified by a diverse population and the presence of extractive industries surrounding the village.
Berau has a strong economic connection to extractive sectors. The study reports that the regency’s gross regional domestic product reached IDR 17.24 trillion in 2023, while its planted oil palm area reached 141,086.94 hectares. Sei Bebanir has a population of 3,359 people, including Dayak Kenyah, Berau, and Orang Banua communities alongside migrants from Java and Sulawesi. This social and economic diversity makes village fund governance more than an administrative issue because public resources are managed within a complex network of local interests.
Juhri, Sadono, and Novaria conducted a qualitative descriptive-analytic case study. They collected information through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. The participants represented the sub-district and village governments, village treasurers, the Village Consultative Body, customary leaders, community figures, non-governmental organizations, and district government officials. The researchers analyzed the data with NVivo 12 Plus by examining institutional structures, process dynamics, collaborative leadership, and accountability.
The central finding was a substantial gap between vertical compliance and horizontal accountability. Compliance with the financial reporting application scored 92 out of 100, while the timeliness of accountability reports reached 88. Budget summary billboards scored 85. By contrast, public access to detailed cost estimates scored only 18, citizen involvement in physical project audits reached 22, and interactive complaint channels scored just 15. The results indicate that the village performs strongly in meeting reporting requirements to higher levels of government but remains weak in enabling substantive public oversight.
Public participation also faces challenges. Village development planning forums were frequently described as ceremonial, while women’s attendance represented only 12 percent in 2024 and 14 percent in 2025. More substantive discussions often took place in informal settings, including customary leaders’ homes, after religious activities, and in coffee shops. According to the study, these informal spaces provide greater opportunities for open communication, trust building, negotiation, and conflict resolution.
Leadership plays an important role in keeping collaboration alive. The village head acts as a facilitator, conflict mediator, and bridge between government institutions, customary leaders, and residents. However, relying heavily on individual leadership also creates vulnerability when leadership changes or political pressure increases after village head elections. Distributed leadership remains limited, while technical knowledge of the financial reporting application is concentrated among only one or two officials.
The study also identifies a narrowing space for local decision-making. Total village revenue increased from approximately IDR 6.32 billion in 2024 to IDR 6.47 billion in 2025, but mandatory spending increased from 65 percent to 72 percent. As a result, the share available for discretionary local physical development declined from 35 percent to 28 percent. The researchers argue that this trend can reduce the space available for meaningful community deliberation over local development priorities.
To address these challenges, Juhri, Sadono, and Novaria propose a hybrid collaborative governance model that combines formal government mechanisms with local social and customary institutions. The model consists of a One-Table Pre-Planning Forum that synchronizes village budgets with corporate social responsibility programs, a Concise Digital Transparency System that transforms technical budget information into accessible infographics, and a Customary-Law-Based Social Audit that provides social consequences for violations of budget commitments.
The proposed model could be relevant for other villages facing similar conditions, particularly communities located near mining and plantation operations. Instead of treating transparency as simply displaying general budget figures, the model emphasizes making financial information understandable and usable by residents. It also strengthens the role of customary and village institutions so that accountability does not depend solely on administrative audits conducted by government authorities.
The researchers conclude that village fund governance in Sei Bebanir remains dominated by vertical administrative compliance, while horizontal and social accountability remain weak. Opening detailed budget information, improving officials’ digital capacity, strengthening oversight institutions, synchronizing village programs with corporate CSR activities, and incorporating locally legitimate social mechanisms are presented as important steps toward more substantive accountability.
Authors
Ahmad Juhri — Doctoral Program in Administrative Science, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya, Indonesia.
Teguh Priyo Sadono — Doctoral Program in Administrative Science, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya, Indonesia.
Rachmawati Novaria — Doctoral Program in Administrative Science, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya, Indonesia.
Research Source
Ahmad Juhri, Teguh Priyo Sadono, and Rachmawati Novaria. “Beyond Vertical Compliance: A Hybrid Collaborative Governance Model for Village Fund Accountability in an Extractive-Industry Setting in Berau, East Kalimantan, Indonesia.” East Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, Volume 5, Number 10, 2026, pages 4021–4038.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/eajmr.v5i10.12
Journal: East Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research
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