The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime considers ICW to be "the leading NGO" focused on fighting corruption in Indonesia.

[8][9] On September 2, 2015, President Joko Widodo appointed former Indonesia Corruption Watch head Teten Masduki as his new chief of staff.

ICW was created on 21 June 1998, a few weeks after the resignation of President Suharto, by social activist Teten Masduki, lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, economist Faisal Basri and other persons in the midst of a reform movement aimed at ensuring that any post-Suharto government would be democratic and free of corruption.

After the fall of Suharto it soon became apparent that the subsequent introduction of a decentralized mode of government with increased regional autonomy produced more corruption, and made its detection and control more difficult.

This inconsistent use of two names (one of them wrong) by media presents challenges to journalists and others researching ICW because two separate searches of each database are required to retrieve all news stories and available information.

For instance, the World Bank 2003 report Combating Corruption in Indonesia cites both the correct and incorrect versions of ICW's name.