Nadiem brought in private team because ministry staff lacked competency to develop applications
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Nadiem Anwar Makarim, Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for the 2019–2024 period, stated that he brought in a private team for the procurement of digitalisation programmes because the staff at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) lacked the competency to develop applications.
Nadiem said that building various applications requires a level of competency that can only be obtained from individuals who have experience in creating large-scale applications.
“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 very clear: the creation of applications used by millions of teachers,” Nadiem stated during the examination of the defendant at the Corruption Court at the Central Jakarta District Court on Monday.
He explained that in the first plenary cabinet meeting, there was a specific directive from the 7th President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, to Kemendikbudristek to implement the role of technology in education, one of which was by building application platforms.
Although Kemendikbudristek has many staff with various abilities and competencies, Nadiem assessed that at that time, there were no staff members who had the competency to build large-scale applications to global standards.
Moreover, Indonesia’s education system is the 4th largest in the world, so building applications requires competency from parties who have experience in creating large-scale applications.
“So, this is the reason I brought in talented, idealistic young people to create various software because that competency did not exist within the ministry,” he said.
Corruption is alleged to have been committed, among others, by carrying out the procurement of information and communication technology-based learning facilities in the form of Chromebook laptops and CDM for the 2020, 2021, and 2022 fiscal years not in accordance with the procurement planning and principles of procurement.
Nadiem’s actions are charged as being carried out together 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.
In detail, the state losses caused include Rp1.56 trillion related to the education digitalisation programme at Kemendikbudristek, as well as US$44.05 million or equivalent to Rp621.39 billion due to the procurement of unnecessary and unbeneficial CDM in the education digitalisation programme.
With those actions, Nadiem is alleged to have received money amounting to Rp809.59 billion originating from PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (PT AKAB) through PT Gojek Indonesia.
It is mentioned that most of the funds from PT AKAB came from Google’s investment of US$786.99 million.
This can be seen from Nadiem’s wealth recorded in the State Organiser’s Wealth Report (LHKPN) for 2022, which includes the acquisition of securities worth Rp5.59 trillion.
For his actions, Nadiem faces penalties as regulated in Article 2 paragraph (1) or Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 on the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) first of the Criminal Code.