Measuring the Impact of COVID-19 Law Response and the Role of Supreme Audit Institutions

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to measure the impacts of constitutional arrangement of a state of emergency, especially Covid-19 pandemic, and to suggest the role of Supreme Audit Institutions to reduce those impacts. This paper uses a descriptive analysis to study constitutional arrangement of emergency in several countries and focuses on the Covid-19 law response in Indonesia. This paper also highlights pandemic-related audits which were conducted by Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan (BPK), the Supreme Audit Institution of Indonesia. This paper concludes that emergency response by the government (such as in the Covid-19 pandemic) should not contradict the intention of legal system to achieve justice in society. Moreover, audit by SAIs is crucial to adjust the emergency response. Thus, this paper suggests that SAIs should take the opportunity and perform audit on the pandemic law response to make a difference to the lives of citizens.