Latest news with #Nadiem
The Star
3 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Anti-graft body questions ex-Indonesian minister Nadiem Makarim over Google Cloud graft case
Former education, culture, research and technology minister Nadiem Makarim (second right) talks to journalists on Aug 7 after undergoing questioning at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) headquarters in Jakarta. - JP JAKARTA: The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has questioned former education, culture, research and technology minister Nadiem Makarim in an investigation into alleged graft pertaining to the procurement of Google Cloud services for schools across the country during his ministerial term. Nadiem came to the KPK headquarters in South Jakarta for an interrogation session on Thursday (Aug 7) morning accompanied by famed lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea. The questioning lasted for nine hours, with Nadiem only speaking briefly to reporters upon leaving the antigraft body's headquarters after the interrogation. ' Alhamdulillah [Praise to God], I have finished providing information about the ministry's Google Cloud procurement,' the former minister said, as quoted by 'Alhamdulillah, it went smoothly. I was able to present my statement, and I want to extend sincere appreciation to the KPK for providing this opportunity,' he The antigraft body kicked off its investigation into the case in July, suspecting that the procurement of the Google Cloud system that took place during Nadiem's tenure as the education minister was rigged. KPK investigations director Asep Guntur Rahayu previously said that the procurement was allegedly done under Nadiem's discretion. Google Cloud is a cloud-based service primarily designed for data storage. It played a central role during the transition to remote learning in schools across the country when learning activities in classrooms were forced to shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Investigators questioned several individuals for the case, including the education ministry's former special staffer Fiona Handayani on July 30. The KPK also questioned two former tech company Gojek Tokopedia (GoTo) officials, namely former director Melissa Siska Juminto and former CEO Andre Soelistyo, as witnesses. Nadiem co-founded Gojek in 2015 and stayed with the company until 2019, when he stepped down from his role to join then-president Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's cabinet. The company later merged with e-commerce platform Tokopedia in 2021. KPK spokesperson Budi Prasetyo said on Tuesday that investigators suspected that the company was involved in the procurement. Nadiem has been implicated in another corruption case pertaining to the ministry's procurement of Google Chromebook laptops for schools across the country during the pandemic. The Attorney General's Office (AGO) is investigating the Chromebook case and has named four people, including Nadiem's former special staffer Jurist Tan, as suspects in the case. They were suspected of abusing their authority by rigging the laptop procurement project worth Rp 9.3 trillion (US$563 million). Investigators alleged that the suspects favoured the Google-based laptop over other products despite the ministry's research team not recommending the product, citing the device's ineffectiveness in regions lacking internet access. State loss from the laptop case is estimated at around Rp 1.9 trillion, largely due to the alleged pricing markups in the project. AGO investigators have questioned the former minister twice for the Chromebook case. He remains a witness in the case. When asked about whether Nadiem would be named as a suspect in the case, the AGO said investigators were still gathering evidence, including how the rigged procurement had benefited certain parties. KPK's Asep said on Thursday the antigraft body was coordinating with the AGO for its investigation in the Google Cloud case, because it was 'intertwined' with the Chromebook case. Nadiem previously denied allegations of collusion to favour the Chromebook over other laptops, while rebuking claims that his ministry dismissed a study outlining the laptop's disadvantages. He also defended the Chromebook procurement, saying that the gadgets were intended to prevent 'learning loss' among students in areas with adequate internet connections and to help educators in their teaching process during the Covid-19 pandemic Nadiem also claimed that the Chromebook programme was a success, with 97 per cent of more than one million laptops procured during his term delivered to 77,000 schools by 2023. -The Jakarta Post/ANN
AFP
4 days ago
- Politics
- AFP
Bogus report on Indonesia laptop graft probe spreads online
"Wow Amazing Nadiem Makarim. Why did he deliver it to Jokowi's house?" reads an Indonesian-language TikTok post on July 19, 2025. It shares a screenshot of a supposed CNBC Indonesia report dated July 16 with a headline that reads: "Nadiem Makarim [says] I handed over the 450 trillion-rupiah laptop procurement money to Mr. Jokowi at his house in Solo." "If you don't believe me, ask Gibran and Kaesang. They were there when I gave the money," it goes on to say, referring to Jokowi's sons Kaesang Pangarep and the country's Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka. Image Screenshot of the false post taken July 28, 2025, with the red X added by AFP The image also surfaced on Facebook and Instagram after the Indonesian Attorney General's Office (AGO) announced mid-June it was barring Nadiem from leaving the country for six months (archived link). The agency said it has brought him for questioning as part of a probe into a 9.3 trillion rupiah (US$573 million) procurement project of student laptops from 2020 to 2022 when Nadiem was education minister under Jokowi (archived link). According to AGO, the laptops did not meet the program's goals as teachers and students found them difficult to use. Four suspects -- including three former education ministry officials and a consultant -- have been named in the investigation (archived link). A keyword search of the name of the reporter shown in the circulating image -- Novina Putri Bestari -- found three news reports related to the case on July 16 (archived here, here and here). None contained any mention of Nadiem saying he handed over money to Jokowi. The font and timestamp format shown in the image are also different from genuine CNBC articles. Image Screenshot comparison of the fabricated report (L) and a genuine article from CNBC Indonesia Moreover, a reverse image search found Nadiem's picture was taken from a CNBC Indonesia report published on June 24, 2025 (archived link). It was about him giving a brief statement after he was questioned for 12 hours at the AGO's headquarters the previous day. The report also does not mention Nadiem making the remarks in the false posts. AFP has previously debunked another false claim involving the former minister following a corruption investigation here.
AFP
12-06-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Video shows Indonesian investigators searching former ministry staff's flats, not residence of ex-minister
"Arrogant toward teachers, former Ministry of Education and Culture official now a fugitive in a corruption case," reads an Indonesian-language SnackVideo post shared on May 28, 2025. The video, which shows investigators entering and searching through a flat, is overlaid with text that says Nadiem is "suspected of being involved in corruption related to a laptop procurement worth nearly 10 trillion Indonesian rupiah (US$614 million)". "The Attorney General's Office, escorted by the military, searched Nadiem's apartment and found several pieces of evidence," it adds, before concluding that the former minister is being "pursued" by the Attorney General's Office and his whereabouts are unknown. Image Screenshot of the false SnackVideo post, captured on June 11, 2025 The video surfaced after the AGO opened a corruption investigation into the ministry of education and culture's procurement of Chromebook laptops worth 10 trillion rupiah between , which were meant to support the digitalisation of public schools. from 2019 until 2024 (archived link). AGO spokesman Harli Siregar said there are "strong indications of a conspiracy in the procurement process", with tests showing the laptops were ineffective in areas lacking reliable internet access, according to a report in the Jakarta Globe (archived link). "Roughly 1,000 Chromebooks had previously been tested and showed poor performance, yet the procurement went ahead," he said. Similar posts claiming the video showed authorities searching Nadiem's flat were also shared elsewhere on SnackVideo as well as on Facebook. "Arrest them and throw them in jail along with the ones who appointed them -- for 55 years," read a comment on one of the posts. Another said: "Seize their assets, make them poor, and lock them up. Cut off the hands of corrupt officials as a deterrent if necessary. Enough is enough!" But as of June 12, the AGO has not conducted a search of Nadiem's flat. Flats of former staff "We never stated that Nadiem Makarim's apartment was searched, let alone that he has been listed as a fugitive," AGO on June 10. He added the agency had searched three residences belonging to the minister's former staff, and those individuals had been banned from travelling. Nadiem's legal counsel, Muhamad Ali Nurdin, separately stated at a press conference on June 10 that no search had been conducted of his client's residence (archived link). "The search never happened," he said. A keyword search on Google led to some of the used in the false posts in a YouTube video published on May 29 by local broadcaster MetroTV (archived link). The video is titled, "Attorney General's Office Searches 2 Apartments of Former Minister of Education and Culture's Staff." Overlaid text on the MetroTV video reads, "Attorney General's Office searches 2 apartments belonging to staff members of the former Minister of Education and Culture". Nowhere in the video does it say the flats belonged to Nadiem. Image Screenshot comparison of falsely shared video (left) and MetroTV's video (right) According to a report by local outlet Tempo, the flats all belonged to the former staff members (archived link). AFP has debunked other false claims related to corruption probes in Indonesia.
The Star
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Alleged laptop procurement graft puts ex-minister Nadiem in spotlight
Former education, culture, research and technology minister Nadiem Makarim (centre) sits next to his lawyers Hotman Paris Hutapea (right) and Mohamad Ali Nurdin (left) during a press briefing in Jakarta. The former minister dismissed allegations of corruption pertaining to the Google Chromebook laptop procurement project in his ministry between 2019 and 2022. - Antara via The Jakarta Post/ANN JAKARTA: After finishing his term as former president Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's education minister, Nadiem Makarim is back in the public spotlight in the Attorney General's Office's (AGO) investigation into alleged corruption pertaining to a procurement project during his ministerial tenure. Investigators with the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for Extraordinary Crimes (Jampidsus) launched an investigation in May into alleged graft related to the procurement of Google Chromebook laptops by the then-education, culture, research and technology ministry between 2019 and 2022. Investigators interrogated at least 28 witnesses. Among them was Fiona Handayani, one of Nadiem's special staffers, who was summoned by the AGO on Tuesday (June 10) for an interrogation session. The AGO previously confiscated her laptop and mobile phones during a raid last month. AGO spokesperson Harli Siregar said that investigators planned to call in two of Nadiem's other former special staffers, identified as Jurist Tan and Ibrahim Arief, for questioning this week Investigators also seized their phones and computers as well as other documents from their houses during a recent raid. The AGO also slapped the three former special staffers with a travel ban on June 4, as they failed to fulfil a summons for an interrogation. According to the AGO, the procurement cost around Rp 9.9 trillion (US$607 million), around two-thirds of which was taken from a special allocated fund originally earmarked to be transferred by the central government to regional administrations. Harli said that investigators found indications of collusion to procure Chromebook laptops to be distributed to schools around the country. The Google-based laptops were picked despite initial tests in 2018 by the ministries' research team that discouraged the use of laptops because of their lack of effectiveness in regions without internet connections. He added that investigators also probed an allegation of price markup for the laptop. While Jampidsus investigators already had the name of five vendors allegedly involved in the case, Harli did not elaborate further on Google's role in the illicit practice. A representative of Google Indonesia was not immediately available to respond to The Jakarta Post's request for comment. The Jampidsus investigators were still looking for the people managing the procurement project as well as the mastermind who first proposed the idea. During a press briefing on Tuesday, Nadiem denied allegations of collusion to favour the Chromebook over other laptops. He also rebuked claims that his ministry dismissed the 2018 study outlining the laptop's disadvantage, claiming that the research was done before he took office in October 2024 and focussed on gadgets for schools in less developed and remote areas. 'Meanwhile, the laptop procurement during my term of office was not targeted for remote and less developed areas,' Nadiem said in the televised press conference. He added that the gadgets were intended to prevent 'learning loss' among students in areas with established digital infrastructure and internet connections during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as to help educators in their teaching process. Nadiem picked famed lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea to represent him in the matter. The lawyer argued that allegations made by AGO investigators missed the mark. 'Nadiem never veered [from the study's results] because the study [and Nadiem's Chromebook procurement] were two different projects. They cannot be linked to each other,' Hotman said. The former education minister further claimed the programme was a success, with 97 per cent of the 1.1 million Chromebook laptops procured during his term delivered to 77,000 schools by 2023. He also claimed that his ministry undertook a 'periodic census' to count the laptops. Despite dismissing the allegations of involvement in the case, Nadiem said that he was 'ready to cooperate' and support investigators by providing needed information or clarification on the investigation. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
