Alleged Corruption in Nadiem Era Investigated, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Respects Legal Process

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, or Kemendikdasmen, will be cooperative in the investigation of the alleged corruption case regarding the procurement of Chromebook laptops at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, or Kemendikbudristek, for the years 2020-2022. Kemendikdasmen also wishes for this case to be resolved promptly.

The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Abdul Mu'ti, stated that the laptop procurement program was initiated by the previous Minister of Education, Nadiem Makarim. The laptop procurement program for teachers, valued at IDR 9.9 trillion, with a special allocation fund of IDR 6.3 trillion, is no longer in operation now.

"That has no relation to what we are currently organizing. Therefore, regarding what was revealed by the Attorney General's Office, we certainly respect all ongoing legal processes," said Mu'ti, Sunday (1/6/2025).

"We certainly hope that the Attorney General's Office will uphold the law fairly and objectively so as not to create problems in the future," he stated.

So far, investigators from the Attorney General's Office have examined 28 witnesses. Among the witnesses examined are two former special staff of Nadiem, namely Fiona Handayani and Jurist Tan. The residences of both have been searched, and several items were seized on May 21.

This suspicion is not something that just appeared yesterday, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has already sniffed out that this project will be problematic.

From the search at Fiona's residence, investigators seized electronic evidence (EE) consisting of 1 laptop and 4 mobile phones. Meanwhile, at Jurist's residence, investigators confiscated electronic evidence including 2 external hard drives, 1 removable disk, and 1 laptop. In addition, investigators also seized 15 agenda books.

The Head of the Legal Information Center of the Attorney General's Office, Harli Siregar, stated that investigators are exploring the methods of diversion or abuse that have led to corruption in the program. From the outset, investigators have found indications of a malicious conspiracy by directing the new technical team to prioritize laptops with the Chromebook operating system in the Technical Study of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) procurement.

Thus, when the procurement process for goods and services is carried out, the chosen item will be a laptop with a Chromebook operating system, even though this is not based on actual needs. In connection with this, investigators are also examining allegations of price inflation for the purchased Chromebook laptops.

"The structure of the case, the modus operandi, and the motives are the most important aspects to investigate in this matter. All of this will be explored during the investigation process," said Harli.

Harli emphasized that they may open the opportunity to examine the vendors and Nadiem. However, the Attorney General's Office has not yet established any suspects in this case and is still searching for the main actors.

This suspicion is not new; Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has already detected that this project would encounter issues. In an ICW study from 2021, this program was not found in the system of the Government Goods/Services Procurement Policy Agency or LKPP.

In addition, the laptop procurement project for the purpose of equalizing education is also not in accordance with the conditions of the internet network in Indonesia which is uneven and technology providers in Indonesia are very limited. This is because Chromebooks are laptops that use the Chrome OS operating system developed by Google which is cloud-based. meaning it must be connected to the internet.

"(At that time), we recommended that the Chromebook laptop procurement program be reviewed," said Dewi Anggraeni, ICW Researcher.

ICW also assesses that this project has led to unhealthy business competition. This is because the push for the use of domestic products at that time seemed forced, while the domestic providers that met the criteria set by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology in the program were only six providers.

Dewi emphasized that such corrupt practices continue to haunt the education budget, which amounts to 20 percent of the state budget. ICW recorded 424 cases of corruption in the education sector that were addressed by law enforcement from 2015 to 2023. The estimated state losses exceed Rp 916 billion.