Former Jokowi Aide Testifies as Character Witness in Chromebook Procurement Corruption Trial

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - CEO of Amartha and former Special Staff to the 7th President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo, Andi Taufan Garuda Putra, appeared as a character witness for the former technology consultant Ibrahim Arief in the trial of the alleged corruption case regarding the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops.

“Brother, you were also a special staff member; were you a special staff or what during Mr Jokowi’s time?” asked the Chief Judge of the Panel, Purwanto S Abdullah, during the trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday (7/4/2026).

“Yes, it was in 2019-2020,” Andi replied.

“What I know is that (Ibrahim) was the IT consultant for system development as mentioned earlier,” said Andi.

Andi admitted that he was unaware of Ibrahim’s activities while serving as a consultant at the Ministry of Education and Culture, especially those related to the charges by the Public Prosecutor (JPU).

“To clarify from the witness, regarding the matters accused or charged against Mr Ibrahim, you have no knowledge of them, right?” asked Judge Purwanto.

“No knowledge,” Andi replied.

At that time, Andi offered the position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to Ibrahim with a net salary of around Rp 200 million.

“We discussed it; I offered him to join Amartha with the package, what the compensation would be like, how much the salary, the take-home pay he would receive,” said Andi.

“From a gross of around Rp 280 million, perhaps the net is around Rp 200 million,” he continued.

These shares could only be sold if Ibrahim had worked at Amartha for more than four years.

However, this offer was not taken because Ibrahim chose to focus on the ongoing project at the ministry led by Nadiem Makarim at that time.