Facts from Nadiem Hearing: Kemendikbudristek IT Consultant Paid Hundreds of Millions from State Budget

JAKARTA — The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) during Nadiem Makarim’s leadership paid IT consultants using funds from the state budget (APBN).

This was revealed by Muhammad Hasan Chabibie, former head of the Centre for Data and Information Technology (Kapusdatin) at Kemendikbudristek, when called as a witness in the continued hearing of the alleged corruption case concerning Chromebook laptop procurement for the accused former Education Minister Nadiem Makarim.

“There were salaries up to hundreds of millions of rupiahs, sir. Is that correct?” asked one of the prosecutors at the Corruption Court hearing in Jakarta on Monday 2 February 2026.

“From the APBN, sir,” Hasan replied.

The prosecutors then compared Hasan’s salary as a Kemendikbudristek official with that of consultants who joined when Nadiem was appointed as minister.

Hasan stated that he currently holds the rank of echelon 1B official. He has been a civil servant since 2006.

“(Working) 20 years. These people work one or two days, just arrive and earn hundreds of millions of rupiahs? From the APBN, right? On whose orders is this payment made? The Minister’s orders, surely?” pressed the prosecutor.

Previously, Ibrahim Arief, one of the accused who served as a technology consultant at Kemendikbudristek during Nadiem Makarim’s era, received a salary of 163 million rupiahs per month.

However, in a hearing on Tuesday 24 February 2026, Ibrahim stated that his actual salary after tax deductions was 118 million rupiahs.

“In the indictment, my salary as a consultant from the foundation is stated as 163 million rupiahs,” said Ibrahim in the Corruption Court hearing in Jakarta on Tuesday 24 February 2026.

“Additionally, that figure was actually still reduced by income tax that I paid in my tax return for the following year. So my net income was actually around 118 million rupiahs,” he added.