Hotman Paris Says Nadiem Makarim's Examination By The AGO Was Postponed For A Week

JAKARTA The attorney for the former Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Mendikbudristek) Nadiem Makarim, Hotman Paris Hutapea, stated that his client's examination by the Attorney General's Office in the alleged corruption case in the procurement of Chrome OS or Chromebook-based laptops was postponed for one week.

"Delayed for one week," said Hotman when confirmed by VOI, Tuesday, July 8.

However, Hotman did not explain further the reasons for the postponement of the examination. In fact, based on an official summons from the Attorney General's Office, Nadiem is scheduled to undergo examination as a witness today at 09.00 WIB.

"Yes, that's right (Nadiem Makarim was examined today)," said the Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the AGO, Harli Siregar, before the news of the postponement was delivered.

Nadiem was previously questioned on Monday, June 23. The examination lasted for 12 hours, from 09.00 to 21.00 WIB. In the session, investigators asked dozens of questions related to the technical procurement of laptops.

"As many as 31 main questions that in the process also develop into further questions and affirmations," said Harli.

One of the points investigated by investigators was the laptop procurement technical study meeting on April 6, 2020 and the follow-up meeting held in May 2020. Harli explained that the initial study actually assessed that the use of Chromebook laptops was ineffective.

"In the end, it was changed in June or July. But before that there was a meeting on May 6, 2020, and this investigator will investigate it," he said.

Investigators are investigating allegations of malicious conspiracy by a number of parties suspected of directing a technical team to draw up technical studies to secure the procurement of laptops with the Chrome OS operating system.

In fact, according to Harli, in 2019 a trial of 1,000 Chromebook units was conducted by the Ministry of Education and Culture's Center for Information and Communication Technology (Pustekkom). As a result, the use of the device was considered ineffective, and the technical team had recommended the Windows operating system.

However, the recommendation was replaced with a new study that again encouraged the use of Chromebooks.

In terms of budget, the laptop procurement costs around Rp9.98 trillion. In detail, Rp3.58 trillion comes from education unit funds (DSP) and around Rp6.39 trillion from special allocation funds (DAK).