Witness Claims Nadiem Paid Expert Staff Hundreds of Millions from State Budget
M Hasan Chabibie, former Head of the Data and Information Technology Centre (Kapusdatin) at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology under Education Minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim, was presented by prosecutors as a witness in the trial of an alleged corruption case involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM).
Hasan revealed that Nadiem brought numerous people to work as expert staff (TA) with salaries of hundreds of millions of rupiah whilst serving as minister. Hasan gave his testimony during a hearing held at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday, 2 March 2026.
Hasan explained that Nadiem directly brought several people to work at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology from the moment he was appointed as minister. When prosecutors asked whether many external personnel were employed during Nadiem’s tenure, particularly in relation to ICT procurement, Hasan confirmed that many expert staff did work there.
When questioned about the salaries paid to these expert staff, Hasan stated that they received compensation reaching hundreds of millions of rupiah. Prosecutors then established that these salaries were entirely funded from the state budget (APBN). Hasan confirmed this, explaining that all payments were made per the instruction of Nadiem as minister.
In contrast, Hasan described his own remuneration as Head of Kapusdatin: as a civil servant at Eselon 1B level, his total income was Rp36 million, comprised of a basic salary of Rp9 million and performance allowance of Rp27 million.
Prosecutors questioned how expert staff could receive hundreds of millions in salary for just a few days’ work, all paid from the state budget. Hasan acknowledged that this was the prevailing rate at the time and that such authorisation came from the minister as the budget holder.
In this case, Nadiem is accused of corruption related to Chromebook laptop procurement whilst serving as Education Minister. The project allegedly caused state losses of Rp2.1 trillion.