JAKARTA - The Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology for the period 2019-2024, Nadiem Anwar Makarim, said that he had brought a personal team in the procurement of digitization programs because the employees of the Ministry of Education and Culture did not have the competence to make applications.
Nadiem said that in building various applications, a level of competence is needed that can only be obtained from people who already have experience making applications on a large scale.
"That is the function of the technology team, the Wartek Team, or whatever its name is, GovTech and others are to realize the vision of the President in the digitization of education and the results are very clear, the creation of applications that are used by millions of teachers," said Nadiempadasidang during the examination of the defendant at the Corruption Court at the Central Jakarta District Court, Monday, May 11, reported by ANTARA.
He explained that in the first plenary cabinet meeting, there was a special instruction from the 7th President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo to the Ministry of Education and Culture to carry out the role of technology in education, one of which is by building an application platform.
Although there are many employees with various abilities and competencies at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Nadiem assessed that there was no staff at that time who had the competence to build an application for large scale with global standards.
Moreover, the education system in Indonesia is the 4th largest in the world, so in building an application it requires competence from parties who have experience in making applications on a large scale.
"So, this is the reason I brought young talents who are idealists to make various software because the competence is not in the ministry," he said.
In the case of alleged corruption in the education digitization program in the form of the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) in the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2019-2022, Nadiem is accused of corruption that has caused losses to the state treasury of IDR 2.18 trillion.
The corruption was allegedly carried out, among others, by carrying out the procurement of learning facilities based on information and communication technology in the form of Chromebook laptops and CDM in the 2020, 2021, and 2022 budget years not in accordance with the procurement planning and procurement principles.
Nadiem's actions were charged together with three other defendants in a different trial, namely Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam, Mulyatsyah, and Sri Wahyuningsih, as well as Jurist Tan, who is currently still at large.
In detail, the losses caused by the state include Rp1.56 trillion related to the education digitization program at the Ministry of Education and Culture, as well as 44.05 million US dollars or the equivalent of Rp621.39 billion due to the procurement of CDM that is not necessary and not useful in the education digitization program.
With this act, Nadiem is suspected of having received money amounting to IDR 809.59 billion originating from PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (PT AKAB) through PT Gojek Indonesia.
It is stated that most of PT AKAB's money comes from Google's investment of US$786.99 million.
This can be seen from Nadiem's wealth which is recorded in the State-level Wealth Report (LHKPN) in 2022, namely there is an acquisition of property in the form of securities worth IDR 5.59 trillion.
For his actions, Nadiem is threatened with a criminal penalty as stipulated in Article 2 paragraph (1) or Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.
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