Chromebook Trial: LKPP Deputy Says OS Licence Prices Can Be Negotiated
JAKARTA - An expert in procurement of goods and services, as well as the Deputy for Law and Dispute Resolution at the Government Goods/Services Procurement Policy Agency (LKPP), Setya Budi Arijanta, stated that the price of operating system (OS) licences, such as for Chrome, can be negotiated.
Setya spoke when asked for his opinion as an expert in the continuation of the trial for the alleged corruption case in the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops for three defendants.
They are former Technology Consultant at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek), Ibrahim Arief; Director of Secondary Education at Kemendikbudristek for 2020–2021 and Budget User Representative (KPA), Mulyatsyah; and Director of Primary Education at Kemendikbudristek for 2020–2021 and KPA, Sri Wahyuningsih.
“If from my experience, Sir, I’ve consolidated OS, Sir. That can be negotiated. It can be haggled, Sir, like that,” Setya said during the trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Thursday (2/4/2026).
Setya said everything depends on the negotiation conducted.
He claimed to have just negotiated for the procurement of an operating system or OS. And the OS licence price can be bargained.
“Yes, I just negotiated OS, Sir, for my office. It’s possible. The Ministry of Finance negotiated OS, it dropped a lot,” Setya said.
“Because the Ministry of Finance has many employees, right, thousands. Whereas my employees are only 400, yet we could negotiate, let alone the Ministry of Finance,” he added.
In this case, former Minister of Education Nadiem Makarim along with three other defendants is said to have caused state financial losses amounting to Rp 2.1 trillion.
Nadiem is charged with enriching himself by Rp 809 billion. This figure is said to come from Google’s investment in Gojek or PT AKAB.
Meanwhile, Mulyatsyah is said to have received SGD 120,000 and USD 150,000.
Nadiem is alleged to have abused his authority, making Google the sole controller of IT procurement, including laptops, in Indonesia’s technology ecosystem.
This was done by directing the procurement study towards one product, namely Chrome-based devices, which is a Google product.
Nadiem carried out this act together with the three other defendants, namely former Technology Consultant at Kemendikbudristek, Ibrahim Arief; Director of Secondary Education at Kemendikbudristek for 2020–2021 and Budget User Representative (KPA), Mulyatsyah; and Director of Primary Education at Kemendikbudristek for 2020–2021 and KPA, Sri Wahyuningsih.
For their actions, Nadiem and the other defendants face charges under Article 2 Paragraph (1) and Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law No. 31 of 1999 as amended and supplemented by Law No. 20 of 2001 on the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption, in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) first of the Criminal Code.