Expert Witness for Nadiem's Side, Former BPK Chairman Deems BPKP Report Unusable as Evidence
Former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Makarim presented former BPK Chairman Agung Firman Sampurna as an expert witness to lighten the case. In his statement, Agung stated that the calculation in the State Loss Audit Report (LHA) by BPKP regarding state losses in the alleged Chromebook laptop corruption case is assumptive and cannot serve as evidence.
Agung initially mentioned three factors that determine state losses. He said the first factor is the loss itself, which is the primary point in forensic accounting and the most crucial in investigative audits.
The second factor, according to him, is unlawful acts. He stated that the element of unlawful acts is important in determining state losses.
The third is the aspect of causality. According to him, there must be a connection between the unlawful act and the resulting loss.
“Thus, there are three absolute requirements that must be met by a State Loss Calculation Report (LHP) or State Loss Audit Report (LHA) for it to be valid and serve as legitimate evidence in court,” Agung said during the trial at the Central Jakarta Corruption Court on Wednesday (6/5/2026).
Agung said the method of calculating state losses used must align with the characteristics of the purchased goods, in this case Chromebook laptops. He stated that the appropriate method for calculating state losses for such goods is the fair value approach or fair market value method.
“None of these three absolute requirements are fulfilled in the State Loss Audit Report used in this trial,” Agung explained.
He assessed that the investigators conducting the investigative examination for calculating state losses in this case were neither from BPK nor external auditors working for and on behalf of BPK. He said the BPKP’s state loss LHA is not supported by predication or a connection between the act and the loss.
“In reality, two previous audits, namely the audit of the 2020 information and communication technology equipment assistance programme and the 2020-2022 audit conducted by the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology and BPKP itself, which should have uncovered predication, instead found no fraud, deviations, or unlawful acts. Yet, substantively, predication is an absolute requirement for conducting investigative audits,” Agung stated.
He also highlighted the alleged unlawful acts. He noted that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology contracted with partners or providers using e-purchasing based on specifications and prices in the e-catalogue.
“If there was indeed collusion, the primary parties responsible should be LKPP, the principal, and the provider. In fact, the BPKP auditor through the state loss LHA did not uncover this at all,” he said.
He stated that the factor of unlawful acts was not uncovered in the BPKP’s state loss LHA used as evidence in this case. He deemed this fatal.
“In summary, we can conclude that the state loss LHA for the Chromebook procurement at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology does not meet the three absolute requirements: first, it was not conducted by the state audit institution with constitutional mandate; second, the investigative examination procedure for state loss calculation was not based on predication; and third, the state loss calculation method used does not match the characteristics of the procured goods,” he revealed.
“Therefore, this state loss LHA cannot be used as legitimate evidence, and substantively, it can be concluded that the state loss revealed in this LHA is assumptive and never occurred,” he added.
In this case, Nadiem is charged with corruption related to the procurement of Chromebook laptops during his tenure as Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. The project is said to have caused state losses of Rp 2.1 trillion.
Besides Nadiem, there are three other defendants in this case. They are Sri Wahyuningsih, former Director of Primary Schools at the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Basic Education, and Secondary Education from 2020-2021; Mulyatsyah, former Director of Junior High Schools at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology in 2020; and Ibrahim Arief (Ibam), a consultant at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology during Nadiem’s era.
Sri and Mulyatsyah have been convicted. Sri was sentenced to 4 years in prison and Mulyatsyah to 4.5 years in prison.