JAKARTA: Indonesia authorities have raided the office of homegrown tech giant GoTo Gojek Tokopedia in connection with an investigation into alleged corruption in a government procurement of Chromebook laptops.
Local media quoted Harli Siregar, a spokesman of the Attorney General Office, as saying on Friday (Jul 11) that its investigators carried out the raid on the office in South Jakarta on Tuesday.
“The items seized include documents and electronic evidence in the form of flash drives,” he added, as quoted by news outlet Jakarta Globe.
The alleged corruption case involved the procurement of Chromebooks at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology from 2019 to 2022 under a budget of 9.9 trillion rupiah (US$610 million).
This was part of a nationwide digitalisation project during former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s tenure, and aimed to support public schools.
When the Attorney General Office announced the probe in May, it said it suspected there was collusion or “criminal conspiracy” among those involved in drafting studies to justify the procurement.
It was reported that there was a lesser need for Chromebooks in Indonesia as these laptops largely require internet connectivity, while internet access across the country remains uneven.
Ride-hailing startup Gojek was founded by Nadiem Makarim, a former minister of education, culture, research, and technology.
Gojek merged with e-commerce firm Tokopedia and became GoTo Gojek Tokopedia, more commonly known as GoTo, in 2021.
Nadiem was questioned by the authorities on Jun 23, with investigators asking him around 31 questions related to the procurement process, Jakarta Globe reported.
He has publicly denied any involvement in the scandal while pledging to cooperate with the probe, which also covers the roles of his special staff members at the time.
Investigators are focusing on a meeting held in early May 2020, which purportedly influenced the decision to proceed with the Chromebook procurement despite the laptops being deemed not the most effective option in an earlier assessment in April 2020.
“There are important matters to examine regarding that meeting in May 2020. We know that technical studies were conducted in April, which were later revised in June or July,” Harli said, as quoted by Jakarta Globe.
“Who played a role in shifting the initial assessment to a review that led to the Chromebook being chosen? This is what we will continue to investigate.”
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-goto-gojek-tokopedia-chromebook-corruption-probe-5234846
