The AGO is investigating the multitrillion-rupiah procurement of Chromebooks between 2019 and 2022, which was part of Nadiem’s school digitalization program at the then-education, culture, research and technology ministry.

After his third round of questioning last Thursday, Nadiem was named a suspect for allegedly abusing his authority by directing the use of Google technology, including Chromebooks, before a proper tender process had begun. AGO investigators alleged the multi-trillion-rupiah project incurred around Rp 1.9 trillion (US$11 million) in state losses.

Nadiem’s lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea, however, pointed to audits by the Finance and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) which he claimed had found no irregularities in the procurement project. One audit was conducted in 2020 and another between 2021 and 2022.

Reading from copies of the audit reports, Hotman said the reviews were conducted to ensure the procurement delivered products of the right quality, at the right price, to the right recipients, with the right impact and completed on time.

“[The BPKP] found nothing that significantly affected the price of the Chromebook procurement. In essence, this means the agency concluded there was no markup [of prices],” Hotman said in a video statement on Saturday.

He claimed that the audit reports also found more than 98 percent of schools acknowledged receiving the laptops, totaling 1.2 million units.