Prosecutor Reveals Chromebook Procurement Budget of Rp 9.3 Trillion, Used Only Once per Year

JAKARTA — The Office of the Attorney General questioned procurement of Chromebook laptops costing up to trillions of rupiah that were used only once per year during investigations into alleged corruption in the Chromebook procurement scheme.

Prosecutors raised this issue whilst examining a civil servant from the South Tangerang City Education and Culture Office, Didin Sihamudin, as a witness in the corruption case against former Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology Nadiem Makarim.

“So the laptop, goods purchased at a price of Rp 6.7 million with billions of rupiah in total budget of Rp 9 trillion, used only once a year?” the prosecutor asked during proceedings at the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court on Monday, 9 March 2026.

“That is the explanation from the schools,” replied Didin.

According to data presented, Chromebook usage intensity was high in September-October but declined significantly in other months, with no recorded usage data in several months.

“January it tended not to be used, February, March, April, May, June, July. Activity became high only when the Minimum Competency Assessment (AKM) was conducted. But in daily use, every month they were never used for the teaching and learning process. That is correct, yes?” asked one prosecutor.

Didin confirmed that Chromebooks distributed to schools were mostly used only during the AKM assessments.

This was a contributing factor to high Chromebook usage in the months when the AKM was implemented that year.

However, this data was limited to South Tangerang and does not represent all regions receiving and implementing the Chromebook procurement.

For the 2021-2022 procurement, the budget reached Rp 9.3 trillion, comprising Rp 3.6 trillion from the Ministry of Education’s budget and Rp 5.6 trillion from special allocation funds (DAK).

Nadiem Makarim is charged with causing state financial losses of Rp 2.1 trillion in the alleged Chromebook procurement corruption case. He is being prosecuted alongside three other defendants: former technology consultant Ibrahim Arief, former Director of Secondary Schools at the Ministry Mulyatsyah, and former Director of Primary Schools at the Ministry Sri Wahyuningsih.

The state loss calculation comprises two elements: procurement of Chromebook laptops and procurement of Chrome Device Management (CDM) services.