Nadiem asserts he never interfered with Gojek affairs after becoming minister
Jakarta — Nadiem Anwar Makarim, Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister for the 2019-2024 period, has asserted that he never again interfered with the affairs of PT Gojek Indonesia after taking ministerial office.
This is because, he stated, whilst serving as minister, his shareholding, which originally could have given him greater authority or decision-making rights, was converted into ordinary shares.
“After that, those voting rights were given and fully delegated to Kevin and Andre,” Nadiem said whilst giving testimony as a crown witness during proceedings at the Anti-Corruption Court at the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday.
Accordingly, Nadiem noted that as one of Gojek’s two co-founders, Kevin Aluwi and Andre Soelistyo were free to make decisions regarding Gojek corporation without consulting or seeking his approval.
He also stated that he never exercised a veto or approved any decisions within Gojek corporation since October 2019, even as a shareholder.
He explained that he relinquished his position at Gojek because the ministerial role was extremely important and required extraordinary effort to avoid conflicts of interest in any respect.
“That is why the letter transferring those voting rights states so clearly that Kevin and Andre do not need to seek my approval,” he said.
Nadiem is a crown witness (witness and simultaneously defendant) in relation to three defendants: Ibrahim Arief, also known as Ibam, Sri Wahyuningsih, and Mulyatsyah.
In the case alleging corruption in an education digitalisation programme involving procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) systems within the Education Ministry during 2019-2022, the three defendants are suspected of causing state losses worth Rp2.18 trillion.
The losses comprise Rp1.56 trillion related to the education digitalisation programme at the Education Ministry, plus 44.05 million United States dollars, equivalent to approximately Rp621.39 billion, resulting from unnecessary and non-beneficial CDM procurement under the education digitalisation programme.
It is alleged that the three defendants committed these unlawful acts jointly with Nadiem and former Special Staff member of the Education Ministry Jurist Tan.
The unlawful acts carried out by the defendants included procurement of technology and communications-based learning facilities in the form of Chromebook laptops and CDM systems during fiscal years 2020, 2021, and 2022 that did not comply with procurement planning and various procurement principles.
For their actions, the three defendants face penalties under Article 2 paragraph (1) or Article 3 read together with Article 18 of Law Number 31 Year 1999 concerning Eradication of Corruption Offences, as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 Year 2001, read together with Article 55 paragraph (1) subsection 1 of the Criminal Code.