Government Urged To Audit Projects Related To Education After Nadiem Makarim Becomes A Attorney General's Suspect

Nadiem Makarim/DOK ANTARA/Nadia Putri Rahmani.

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI) urges the government to audit all projects related to education since 2019. All those involved must be held accountable for their actions before the law.

This pressure was conveyed by the National Coordinator of JPPI, Ubaid Matraji in response to the determination of the suspect and the detention of former Minister of Education and Technology Nadiem Anwar Makarim or Nadiem Makarim by the Attorney General's Office on Thursday, September 4. This forced effort is related to allegations of corruption in the procurement of the Chrome Book at the Ministry of Education and Culture.

"The government and civil society must immediately conduct a forensic audit of all programs and projects at the Ministry of Education since 2019," Ubaid said in a written statement quoted on Saturday, September 6.

"Fight up all the dirty practices and drag all the perpetrators to court," he continued.

In addition, the Attorney General's Office is also taken seriously in handling allegations of corruption that dragged Nadiem. "Don't let this case evaporate like the previous cases," said Ubaid.

In addition, transparency and accountability in the education bureaucracy must involve the public. This method must be done so that corrupt intentions can be seen and prevented, said Ubaid.

There needs to be a total reform regarding transparency and accountability in the education bureaucracy, by involving the public in supervision. Otherwise, our education will continue to be a wetland for corruptors and the future of the nation will be at stake," he said.

Previously reported, Nadiem Makarim is the fifth suspect in the corruption case in the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops in the Education Digitization program of the Ministry of Education and Culture for the 2019-2022 period.

He followed Mulyatsyah, former director of SMP Kemendikbudristek; Sri Wahyuningsih, former principal director of Kemendikbudristek; Ibrahim Arief, technology consultant at Kemendikbudristek; and Jurist Tan, former special staff of the Minister of Education and Culture.

In this case, Nadiem Makarim is suspected of violating Article 2 paragraph 1 or Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law number 31 of 1999 as amended by Law number 20 of 2001 concerning amendments to Law of the Republic of Indonesia number 31 of 1999 concerning the weighting of criminal acts of corruption in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph 1 to 1 of the Criminal Code.

The case began when the Ministry of Education and Culture carried out the procurement of information and communication technology (ICT) devices at the PAUD to SMA levels in 2020-2022 for underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) areas as many as 1.2 million chromebook laptops. The budget used reaches IDR 9.3 trillion sourced from the APBN and special allocation funds (DAK).

However, the AGO stated that the purpose of procuring ICT devices in the form of 1.2 million chromebook laptops for school students was not achieved. Because, because Chrome OS has many weaknesses for the 3T area, the suspect's actions are considered detrimental to state finances.

In addition, the use of chromebooks is very dependent on the internet connection. In fact, internet access in many parts of Indonesia is not evenly distributed.