Indonesia’s Chromebook corruption probe, in visuals

Classroom laptops. Gojek execs. A US$608 million budget.

Gojek co-founder Nadiem Makarim left his perch atop Indonesia’s foremost tech company to become education minister in 2019, aiming to innovate and digitally transform the country’s education system.

But a program to procure 1.2 million of Google’s Chromebook laptops has turned into a corruption investigation.

Authorities say that the ministry chose the Chromebooks despite recommendations for Windows devices, and that vendors sold them to the state at inflated prices.

Four people have been charged as suspects. Makarim, whose tenure as minister ended in 2024, is not one of them.

Corruption allegations around public procurement are not new in Indonesia. Past cases have implicated career politicians and reformist technocrats, such as the recent Thomas Lembong case. 

But Makarim has largely been a political outsider: a tech founder with little prior exposure to political networks or legacy institutions. 

That said, the investigation involves figures with links to local tech firms like Gojek and Bukalapak, as well as a global giant in Google – which authorities noted is a Gojek investor.

Investigators allege that the group steered procurement toward ChromeOS devices, overriding earlier technical recommendations that favored Windows. Eventually, the Chromebooks proved difficult to use in classrooms located in Indonesia’s more remote areas.