The Indonesian Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) has revealed that Gojek founder Nadiem Makarim gave instructions regarding the selection of Chromebooks in the Education Digitalization program.

The directive was issued by Nadiem in his capacity as Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek).

In December 2019, Jurist Tan, a special staff member for Minister Nadiem, discussed technical aspects of the procurement with the Center for Education and Policy Studies (PSPK).

These discussions included the use of ChromeOS or Chromebooks.

In February and April 2020, Minister Nadiem met with representatives from Google to discuss the project.

According to Kejagung’s Director of Investigation, Abdul Qohar, Google offered a 30% co-investment if the ministry procured Chromebooks from 2020 to 2022.

This offer was reportedly communicated by Tan in meetings with key officials, including other suspects.

On May 6, 2020, during a virtual meeting led by Minister Nadiem, an instruction was issued to proceed with the procurement of Chromebooks, despite the process not being finalized.

The program involved acquiring 1.2 million laptops, including for remote schools, at a total budget of 9.3 trillion rupiah (US$574 million).

Nadiem remains a witness in the investigation.

🔗 Source: kumparan

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Indonesia’s recurring pattern of procurement scandals

The Chromebook procurement case follows a well-documented pattern of corruption in Indonesian government contracting that has persisted across multiple administrations.

The e-KTP (electronic ID card) scandal from 2017 showed similar characteristics, with approximately $172 million misappropriated from a $450 million budget after officials allegedly predetermined vendor selection before technical evaluations were complete 1.

Indonesia loses an estimated $4 billion annually to corruption in public procurement alone, making it one of the highest-risk areas for misappropriation of government funds 2.