Judge: Nadiem Exceeded Authority in Placing Jurist Tan at Ministry
The Jakarta Corruption Court panel has stated that former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Makarim placed two special staff members in positions far exceeding the authority stipulated in laws and regulations. In its legal considerations, the judge explained that based on Government Regulation Number 66 of 2019 concerning the Organisation of State Ministries and other related regulations, a minister’s special staff only has the authority to provide advice and considerations to the minister in specific fields. Special staff do not have operational authority over echelon 1 and echelon 2 officials, nor do they have the authority to formulate or decide on policy.
However, in practice, the judge stated that Nadiem placed his two special staff members in positions far beyond their normative authority. “Considering that from the testimony of internal ministry witnesses, it has been sufficiently proven that the defendant placed Jurist Tan as Special Staff to the Minister for Government Affairs and witness Fiona Handayani as Special Staff to the Minister for Strategic Issues in positions that far exceeded their normative authority,” the judge said while reading the verdict considerations at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday (30/6).
The judge cited the testimony of the former Director General of Early Childhood Education, Basic Education, and Secondary Education, Jumeri, who stated in a previous hearing that Jurist Tan often led meetings via Zoom regarding ministry policies. According to the witness, the budgeting and procurement policy processes were entrusted more to the special staff than to the director general. “That Jurist Tan was close to the defendant Nadiem Makarim and what Jurist Tan said was considered the word of the defendant,” the judge added.
The judge assessed that the placement of the special staff in such positions was not accidental but had been systematically designed since before Nadiem was inaugurated as minister. “The defendant himself admitted in court that the WhatsApp group ‘Mas Menteri Core Tim’ was formed on 28 August 2019, before he was inaugurated as minister on 23 October 2019, and already included people who would be placed as the minister’s special staff, including Jurist Tan and Fiona Handayani,” the judge stated.
Nadiem was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a fine of Rp1 billion in the corruption case related to the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) for the 2020-2022 fiscal years. The judge declared that Nadiem was proven guilty of corruption as charged in the subsidiary indictment. Nadiem was also sentenced to an additional penalty of paying restitution amounting to Rp809.5 billion, with the provision that if the restitution is not paid, it will be replaced with an additional 5 years of imprisonment. One member of the panel of judges, Andi Saputra, expressed a dissenting opinion, arguing that the prosecutor’s charges against Nadiem were not proven and that he should have been acquitted of all charges in the Chromebook case.