Ministry Staff Incompetent in App Development, Nadiem Brings Personal Team
Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Mendikbudristek) for the 2019-2024 period, Nadiem Anwar Makarim, revealed that he brought in a personal team for the digitalisation programme procurement due to a specific reason. According to him, Mendikbudristek employees do not possess the competence to create applications.
Nadiem stated that building various applications requires a level of competence that can only be obtained from individuals with experience in developing large-scale applications. Such work cannot be handled by civil servants.
“That is the function of the technology team, the Wartek Team, or whatever it is called—GovTech and so on—to realise the President’s vision in the digitalisation of education, and the results are clear: the creation of applications used by millions of teachers,” Nadiem said during the defendant’s examination hearing at the Central Jakarta Corruption Court, on Monday (11/5/2026).
The Gojek founder explained that in the first full cabinet meeting, there was a special directive from the 7th President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology to implement technology’s role in education. One of them is by building application platforms.
Although the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology has many employees with various abilities and competencies, Nadiem assessed that at that time, there were staff members who had the competence to build large-scale applications to global standards. Moreover, Indonesia’s education system is the 4th largest in the world.
Therefore, building applications requires competence from parties with experience in creating large-scale applications. “So, this is the reason I brought in talented, idealistic young people to create various software because that competence was not available within the ministry,” Nadiem said.
In the alleged corruption case of the education digitalisation programme involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology from 2019 to 2022, Nadiem is charged with corruption that harms state finances amounting to Rp 2.18 trillion. The corruption is alleged to have been carried out by implementing the procurement of information and communication technology-based learning facilities.
Among them, in the form of Chromebook laptops and CDM for the 2020, 2021, and 2022 fiscal years, which turned out not to comply with the procurement planning and procurement principles. Nadiem’s actions are charged as being committed jointly with three other defendants in separate trials, namely Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam, Mulyatsyah, and Sri Wahyuningsih, as well as Jurist Tan, who is currently a fugitive.