JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesian investigators on Thursday named a former education minister and co-founder of ride-hailing firm Gojek, Nadiem Makarim, as a suspect in a corruption case about alleged improper laptop procurement and said he had been detained.
An investigator at the attorney general’s office said Makarim would be detained for 20 days while the investigation proceeds.
Makarim, education minister between 2019 and 2024, was accused of involvement in the procurement of Google’s Chromebook laptops for use at his ministry and by students, said investigator Nurcahyo Jungkung Madyo.
“I did not do anything. God will protect me, the truth will come out,” local media reported Makarim as saying before leaving the prosecutors’ office to a detention house.
His lawyer did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Makarim was accused of misusing his authority as minister to enrich himself or a company, Nurcahyo said, in violation of Indonesia’s anti-corruption laws. Investigators estimated the case had caused losses to the state of 1.98 trillion rupiah ($121.85 million).
“For investigation purposes, (Makarim) will be detained for the next 20 days,” Nurcahyo told a press conference.
The prosecutors found that Makarim had issued a decree in 2021 containing procurement specifications that matched only the Chromebook laptop, Nurcahyo said.
Before selecting the Chromebook, Makarim met representatives of Google Indonesia six times, Nurcahyo told reporters.
Google Indonesia declined to comment on the case against Makarim. It said it works with resellers and partners to deliver its technology and government agencies transact with them, not Google.
In July, the attorney general’s office raided the office of Indonesian tech firm GoTo Gojek Tokopedia to search for evidence related to the case but did not provide further details.
GoTo Gojek Tokopedia did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Makarim left Gojek after he was appointed minister in 2019. Gojek merged with e-commerce startup Tokopedia in 2021 to form GoTo Gojek Tokopedia, Indonesia’s largest tech company.
($1 = 16,250.0000 rupiah)
(Reporting by Ananda Teresia; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Ros Russell)
