The Indonesian Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) is investigating alleged corruption in the Digitalization of Education Program under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology from 2019 to 2022.

The program, launched under the leadership of Nadiem Makarim, the founder of Gojek, is now under intense scrutiny. The procurement project, valued at 9.9 trillion rupiah (US$600 million), has drawn attention due to irregularities.

Harli Siregar, head of the Legal Information Center at Kejagung, confirmed that the office provided legal assistance for the project through the Junior Attorney General for Civil and State Administration.

Prosecutors made recommendations to ensure that the procurement of Chromebooks complied with legal guidelines.

“The recommendations were for the procurement of Chromebooks to follow the appropriate regulatory framework,” Siregar said on June 10, 2025, at Kejagung’s headquarters.

Siregar noted that the responsibility for implementing these recommendations lay with the requesting institution.

He explained that initial technical recommendations suggested using a Windows operating system for the laptops, but this was later altered to Chromebooks.

Nadiem expressed surprise at the investigation, saying that the process involved multiple state institutions, including the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) and Kejagung’s division.

🔗 Source: CNN Indonesia

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Large-scale government procurement projects in Indonesia face recurring corruption challenges

The current investigation into the Rp 9.9 trillion education digitalization program highlights significant corruption risks in large-scale Indonesian government procurement projects.

The e-KTP (electronic ID card) project from 2010 serves as a notable historical example, where a Rp 5.9 trillion government procurement initiative resulted in estimated state losses exceeding Rp 2.3 trillion according to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The e-KTP case implicated multiple high-ranking officials and led to convictions of several individuals, including the former Speaker of the House who allegedly demanded a 5% fee from contractors and personally gained USD 7.3 million.

This recurring issue in major government procurement initiatives has prompted Indonesian authorities to be more vigilant about specifications changes in large technology contracts, as seen in the reported shift from Windows-based laptops to Chromebooks in the current case.

2️⃣ Technical specification changes often become focal points in procurement investigations