How the Indonesian Ministry of Finance Handles Government Debt Issue

Abstract

An organization cannot be separated from its interactions with stakeholders.  In these interactions, there are often different views and perspectives of each party. This gap is often referred to as an issue.  Issues facing an organization should be properly managed through an issue management. One of the issues facing the Ministry of Finance is the issue of Indonesian government debt. This issue developed through the mass media. This issue has the potential to damage the reputation and public trust in the Ministry of Finance.  This study examines how the Ministry of Finance deals with the issue of Indonesian government debt. This study uses a qualitative method with a case study approach to gain an understanding of the issue management undertaken. The research data was collected from observations and in-depth interviews with several sources.The results show that the Ministry of Finance has succeeded in dealing with government debt issues through the application of standard operating procedure (SOP) for handling negative news which is an adaptation of the issue management model.