Revealed in Court, Kemendikbudristek Chromebook Corruption Allegedly Causes State Loss of Rp5.26 Trillion

The trial of the alleged corruption case in the procurement of Chromebook laptops within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) has revealed a staggering figure for state losses. The panel of judges at the Central Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor) stated that the losses in the education digitalisation project amounted to Rp5.26 trillion.

This figure was disclosed when the panel of judges read out the verdict against Kemendikbudristek’s Technology Consultant, Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam, on Tuesday, 12 May 2026.

Member Judge Sunoto explained that the state losses originated from two main components: the activation of the Chrome Device Management (CDM) programme and alleged overpayments in the procurement of Chromebook laptops under the 2019 to 2022 education digitalisation programme.

“This comes from admissions during the trial, which are actually larger than the calculations by the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP),” said Judge Sunoto in the courtroom at the Central Jakarta Corruption Court.

In the trial, the judges detailed the state losses from the CDM programme activation at US$44.05 million, equivalent to Rp621.39 billion.

Meanwhile, the largest losses were said to come from the Chromebook laptop procurement. The panel of judges assessed overpayments of up to Rp4.64 trillion due to alleged price mark-ups of around Rp4 million per unit.

The procurement involved approximately 1.16 million units of Chromebooks. The judges stated that the procurement price was allegedly three times the market price.

This case has drawn attention because the education digitalisation project was initially promoted to support technology-based learning in Indonesian schools, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its verdict, the panel of judges sentenced Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam to four years in prison. In addition to the imprisonment, he was fined Rp500 million, subsidiary 120 days’ detention.

The panel of judges declared that Ibam was proven to be involved in the procurement of information and communication technology-based learning facilities in the form of Chromebook laptops and CDM that did not comply with the principles or planning of government goods and services procurement.

For his actions, Ibam was found to have violated Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law No. 31 of 1999 on the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended by Law No. 20 of 2001 in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) first of the Criminal Code.

The Kemendikbudristek Chromebook case itself has become one of the corruption cases with the largest state losses in the education sector in recent years.