Former Indonesian Education minister Nadiem Makarim Charged in $606 Million Chromebook procurement Scandal
Jakarta – Nadiem Makarim, who served as IndonesiaS Minister of Education and Culture under President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo from 2019 to 2024, has been detained for questioning by the Attorney General’s office in connection with a large-scale corruption probe surrounding the procurement of Chromebooks for Indonesian schools.The case stems from a 9.98 trillion rupiah (approximately $606 million) program intended to digitalize classrooms nationwide.
The investigation was formally launched in May 2025, focusing on the decision to procure chromebooks despite a 2019 pilot test which identified the devices’ ineffectiveness in areas with unreliable internet access – a common issue throughout Indonesia.
Prosecutors allege that Makarim played a role in advocating for the inclusion of Google Chromebooks in the education procurement program, reportedly responding to a promotional letter from Google in early 2020 while serving as minister. The financial damage to the state is currently estimated at 1.98 trillion rupiah ($120 million), a figure still being audited by the Financial and Progress Supervisory Board (BPKP).
A BPKP audit completed in February 2024 revealed several key issues with the program, including overlapping aid to schools already receiving government funding, the misallocation of 44.5 billion rupiah to nearly 500 schools that did not meet student requirements, and broader problems with targeting, timing, device specifications, and quantity. The audit findings have been provided to prosecutors as evidence in the ongoing corruption probe.
Makarim has been charged under Indonesia’s Anti-Corruption Law (Law No.31/1999 as amended by Law No. 20/2001) in conjunction with Article 55 of the Criminal Code. He is the fifth individual to be officially charged in the wider investigation into procurement irregularities between 2019 and 2022.
Other suspects include: Sri Wahyuningsih, former Directorate General education official (PAUD to secondary level); Mulyatsyah, former junior high school director at the Ministry; Jurist Tan, former special staff to Minister Makarim; and Ibrahim Arief, technology infrastructure consultant at the Ministry.
The Chromebook procurement program was a flagship policy of the Jokowi management, initially rolled out during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Makarim stated in June 2025 that the program distributed 1.1 million laptops, 3G modems, and projectors to over 77,000 schools over four years, claiming that 97% of the laptops had been delivered to active, registered schools by 2023.
Prior to joining Jokowi’s cabinet in October 2019, Makarim stepped down as CEO of Gojek. Gojek later merged with Tokopedia in 2021 to form PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia (GoTo). The attorney general’s office raided GoTo’s office in July 2025 as part of the investigation, but details of the search were not publicly released.The arrest and charges against Makarim follow a period of unrest in Indonesia, including demonstrations in August 2023 where a protester, Kurniawan, was killed after being struck by a police vehicle during a chase. This incident reportedly fueled further unrest across Indonesian cities.
