IAW Reveals Closed Scheme Chromebook Activation At Kemendikbudristek

Illustration of corruption (ANTARA)

JAKARTA The procurement of millions of Chromebook units by the state is actually expected to be a big leap for the digitization of education. But what happened was the opposite. The state only bought physical devices, without ever having the system that operates them.

This business scheme has now dragged former Kemendikbudristek official to the investigation table. Iskandar Sitorus, Founder Secretary of Indonesian Audit Watch (IAW), said legal problems arose because the device could not be used without activation through Chrome Device Management (CDM).

According to Iskandar, the CDM system belongs to Google, but in Indonesia it can only be accessed and operated by one company, namely PT D, which is Google Education's official partner. Closed business modes like this cause the device to be locked and the state budget is sucked in," he said on Friday, August 8, 2025.

IAW found that all devices must be enrolled using serial numbers that can only be activated by PT D. There is no self-activation option by schools, local governments, and even ministries. This condition makes the state fully dependent on one private entity to open access to the devices it has purchased.

The IAW audit estimates that CDM activation costs range from IDR 500 thousand to IDR 600 thousand per unit. With millions of units purchased, the potential hidden costs can reach IDR 1 trillion. Ironically, this fee was never officially announced, was not audited, and was immediately included in the procurement price.

"This is the perfect form of the planned mark-up design. If the unit price is decomposable, investigators will easily understand it. The tender winner has even given a complete confession at the BAP," said Iskandar. He added that this CDM system did not appear suddenly, but was already conditioned long before Nadiem Makarim served as minister.

Other findings suggest that the procurement specifications are locked only for devices with CDM, so that global vendors such as Acer, Asus, and Lenovo cannot distribute their products directly. This is not just a violation of ethics, but systemic engineering," said Iskandar.

IAW considers this practice to violate a number of regulations, ranging from the Anti-Corruption Law article 15 concerning corruption planning, article 13 regarding project promises before office, Law 5/1999 on anti-monopoly, to the State Finance Law regarding budget waste without an efficiency basis. For Iskandar, the problem is not just the purchase of Chromebooks, but a system locked by one vendor.

Furthermore, Iskandar assessed that PT D is not just a distributor, but a GTekeeper for the national education digital system. Without their intervention, devices worth trillions of rupiah cannot be used in classrooms.

"This is a mode of crime that has occurred in a number of countries. The system is purchased, but the control is not held by the state," he said.

IAW urged law enforcement officials to audit the total CDM scheme since 2019-2024, trace tender specifications that lead to single vendors, and take over the Google Admin Console system for the sovereignty of educational data.

"Don't let this immoral business model be a precedent. Unload who arranged it from the start, because this is a system design to rob the budget legally," concluded Iskandar.