Nadiem Trial: Vendor Admits Being Informed by Google Representative about Chromebook Procurement

Jakarta — The Chief Executive of PT Evercoss Technology Indonesia, Imam Sujati, has admitted that he received information about a procurement deal at the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbudristek) from Google, specifically from Ganis Samoedra, Strategic Partner Manager for Chrome OS Indonesia.

Imam provided this testimony whilst being examined as a witness in the ongoing trial of alleged corruption involving the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops for former Education Minister Nadiem Makarim.

In a statement dated 11 September 2025, Imam said he received a report from his employee Iwanto regarding Ganis’s involvement in the Chromebook procurement at Kemendikbudristek in 2021.

“Did Iwanto inform you at the time about this person Ganis in order to participate in the Chromebook procurement at Kemendikbudristek in 2021?” asked public prosecutor Roy Riady during the session at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday (9 March 2026).

At that time, Evercoss was asked to manufacture laptops with the Chrome operating system, including Chrome Device Management (CDM).

“Around January 2021, I received a report from Iwanto, product manager at PT Evercoss Technology Indonesia, conveying an offer from a Google employee named Ganis to manufacture Chromebooks,” the prosecutor read from the statement.

Imam confirmed that the offer had been received by the company.

At that time, Evercoss had never manufactured Chromebooks before, so Google representatives visited their factory to assess production readiness.

When pressed by the prosecutor, Imam explained that he initially did not know the procurement was for a ministry.

“I said, as long as we could make a small profit or break even, we would just proceed with it because after Covid-19 our sales had dropped significantly and there was a threat of employee redundancies,” Imam explained.

The prosecutor noted that Ganis’s communication had occurred before the Ministry procurement process began.

“According to the information from Iwanto’s report, there was also mention that an unnamed Ministry of Education official directed principals, including Evercoss, to manufacture Chromebooks, whilst at that time the e-catalogue procurement had not yet commenced. Was such a communication made?” the prosecutor pressed.

“Yes, that is correct,” Imam replied briefly.