Nadiem Makarim Files Pretrial

Former Minister Of Education, Culture, Research And Technology (Mendikbudristek) 2019-2024 Nadiem Makarim/DOK ANTARA

JAKARTA - Former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Mendikbudristek) Nadiem Makarim filed a pretrial lawsuit on his status as a suspect in the alleged corruption case in the procurement of a Chromebook laptop at the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2019-2022.

The pretrial lawsuit was filed at the South Jakarta District Court, South Jakarta, on Tuesday.

"Today is a list of pretrial applications on behalf of Pak Nadiem Makarim. The object being sued is in the determination of the suspect and detention," said Nadiem's attorney, Hana Pertiwi, Antara, Jakarta, Tuesday, September 23.

Hana said that her party considered the determination of Nadiem as a suspect by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to be invalid because there was not sufficient preliminary evidence, one of which was evidence of auditing state losses from the competent authorities.

"The authorized agency (to audit) is the BPK (Financial Audit Agency) or BPKP (Financial and Development Supervisory Agency), and the detention is also automatic, if the determination of the suspect is invalid, the detention is also invalid," he said.

It is known that the AGO named Nadiem Makarim as a suspect in the alleged corruption case in the procurement of Chromebook laptops at the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2019-2022 on September 5, 2025.

Director of Investigation at the Jampidsus Attorney General's Office, Nurcahyo Jukung Madyo, said that in 2020, Nadiem as Minister of Education and Culture at that time met parties from Google Indonesia.

The meeting was in order to talk about products from Google, one of which was the Google for Education program using Chromebooks that can be used by ministries, especially students.

In several meetings held by Nadiem Makarim with Google Indonesia, it was agreed that products from Google, namely Chrome OS and Chrome Devices Management (CDM) will be made a project to procure ICT equipment.

Then, a closed meeting was held to discuss procurement using Chromebooks. In fact, at that time, the procurement of ICT equipment had not yet started.

To pass the Chromebook, in early 2020, Nadiem Makarim as minister answered a Google letter to participate in the procurement of ICT equipment at the Ministry of Education and Culture.

In fact, previously the Google letter was not answered by the previous Minister of Education, Muhadjir Effendy.

"(Muhadjir Effendy) did not respond because the 2019 Chromebook procurement trial had failed and could not be used for the Outer Lines School (SGT) or the outermost, underdeveloped, frontier (3T) area," said Nurcahyo.

Then, on Nadiem's orders regarding the implementation of the 2020 ICT procurement which will use Chromebooks, suspect SW (Sri Wahyuningsih) as Director of PAUD and suspect MUL (Mulyatsyah) as Director of Junior High School Directorate of Basic Education and Secondary Education at the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2020-2021, made technical instructions as well as implementation instructions whose specifications have locked (Chrome OS).

"Furthermore, the technical team made a technical review study which was used as technical specifications by mentioning Chrome OS," added Nurcahyo.

Finally, Nadiem Makarim in February 2021 issued Permendikbud Number 5 of 2021 concerning Operational Guidelines for the Regular Physical Special Allocation Fund (DAK) for Education for Fiscal Year 2021, which in its attachment has locked the specifications of Chrome OS.

The state financial losses arising from the procurement of ICT equipment are estimated at around Rp1.98 trillion, which is currently still being calculated further by the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP).