Former education, culture, research and technology minister Nadiem Makarim (centre) walking out of the Attorney General's Office building in Jakarta on Sept 4, 2025. - Antara
JAKARTA: Nadiem Makarim's legal team contends that the procurement of Google Chromebook laptops during his tenure as education minister had previously been cleared in two government audits, as it contests the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) decision to name him as a corruption suspect.
The AGO is investigating the multitrillion-rupiah procurement of Chromebooks between 2019 and 2022, which was part of Nadiem’s school digitalisation programme at the then-education, culture, research and technology ministry.
After his third round of questioning last Thursday (Sept 4), Nadiem was named a suspect for allegedly abusing his authority by directing the use of Google technology, including Chromebooks, before a proper tender process had begun.
AGO investigators alleged the multi-trillion-rupiah project incurred around Rp 1.9 trillion (US$11 million) in state losses.
Nadiem’s lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea, however, pointed to audits by the Finance and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) which he claimed had found no irregularities in the procurement project.
One audit was conducted in 2020 and another between 2021 and 2022. Reading from copies of the audit reports, Hotman said the reviews were conducted to ensure the procurement delivered products of the right quality, at the right price, to the right recipients, with the right impact and completed on time.
“[The BPKP] found nothing that significantly affected the price of the Chromebook procurement. In essence, this means the agency concluded there was no markup [of prices],” Hotman said in a video statement on Saturday.
He claimed that the audit reports also found more than 98 per cent of schools acknowledged receiving the laptops, totalling 1.2 million units.
Hotman said the AGO itself, through the office of the assistant attorney general for civil and state administration (Jamdatun), had also provided the ministry with guidance during the procurement in June 2020 to ensure compliance with laws.
Since Nadiem was named a suspect last week, Hotman has consistently asserted his client’s innocence, saying then that the former education minister did not personally benefit from the procurement and even requesting a 10-minute audience with President Prabowo Subianto to present his case.
The AGO has accused Nadiem of violating several regulations on procurement in state ministries and the usage of ministerial special allocation funds (DAK).
Investigators charged him with illicit enrichment under the 2001 Corruption Law, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a Rp 1 billion fine.
Nurcahyo Jungkung Madyo, director of investigations at the office of the assistant attorney general for extraordinary crimes (Jampidsus), said in a press briefing on Thursday that Nadiem met Google Indonesia representatives in early 2020 to discuss using the company’s products for the ministry’s school digitalisation project.
Despite a ministry study discouraging the purchase of Chromebooks due to poor internet access in remote areas, prosecutors alleged that Nadiem pushed ahead and, in May 2020, discussed procurement plans with several ministry officials.
He is also accused of ordering subordinates to rig the specifications of the tender so that the procured laptops had the ChromeOS operating system, effectively giving Chromebooks an advantage.
Nadiem is being detained at the Salemba detention center. He is the fifth suspect to be charged in the corruption case.
The others are former high-ranking education ministry officials Sri Wahyuningsih and Mulyatsyah; former technology consultant who worked for the ministry Ibrahim Arief; and former Nadiem special staffer Jurist Tan, who is still at large. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
