KPK probes cases involving Jokowi-era ministers

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has launched an investigation into alleged graft in the procurement of Google Cloud services by the former Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry under Nadiem Makarim. The antigraft body has also summoned former religious affairs minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas for questioning in a separate case pertaining to the 2024 haj program.

These cases appear to mark a turning point as the KPK shifts its investigations to target former officials with no direct political ties to President Prabowo Subianto.

The investigation into the Google Cloud case is still in the early stage, during which several individuals have been questioned, including Fiona Handayani, a special ministerial staffer to Nadiem. The KPK is also expanding its probe to include senior executives of PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia, the tech company that was formed following the 2021 merger of e-commerce platform Tokopedia and on-demand services company Gojek, which Nadiem founded in 2010 prior to his ministerial appointment in 2019.

On Aug. 5, the KPK issued summonses to GoTo’s former commissioner Andre Soelistyo and former director Melissa Siska Juminto, shortly after discussions surfaced on a potential merger between GoTo and Gojek’s Singapore-based rival Grab.

Asep Guntur Rahayu, the KPK’s acting enforcement and execution deputy, said the Google Cloud procurement project aimed to store data from Indonesian schools conducting remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In parallel, the KPK is also investigating potential graft in the procurement of free internet data packages, another initiative launched by the education ministry during the pandemic to support online learning. The ministry rolled out the first internet data assistance on Sept. 22- 24, 2020.

The antigraft body has emphasized that the Google Cloud probe is separate from the ongoing investigation into the ministry’s Chromebook procurement by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO). This latter case concerns the ministry’s 2019-2022 education digitalization program, and the AGO has named four suspects to date: former special staffer Jurist Tan, former technology consultant Ibrahim Arief, former primary education director Sri Wahyuningsih (2020-2021) and former secondary education director Mulyatsyah (2020-2021).

Nadiem’s summons in the KPK’s Google Cloud probe coincides with Yaqut’s questioning in its investigation into the 2024 haj program, which focuses on the alleged abuse of authority in haj quota management and distribution, including Indonesia’s extra quota allocation from the Saudi Arabian government.

Earlier, the KPK questioned Hilman Latief, the Religious Affairs Ministry’s director general for haj and umrah services, on the quota management process and the role of haj associations in proposing additional quotas. In 2024, the House of Representatives’ special haj committee said it had found irregularities in that year’s haj program. Meanwhile, KPK chairman Setyo Budiyanto said alleged graft in haj quota management was not limited to 2024, but also extended to previous years.

The House commission is expected to elevate the case from the investigation phase to formal legal proceedings in the near future.

The cases involving Nadiem and Yaqut are part of a series of graft scandals implicating senior officials in the administration of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. These include the 2015-2016 sugar import case for which former trade minister Thomas Lembong was convicted but recently granted amnesty by President Prabowo. The KPK appears to be signaling a renewed effort to pursue graft cases involving former officials, particularly those no longer in office who do not have ties to the Prabowo administration.

While Prabowo appears to be demonstrating his commitment to combat graft, widely seen as a persistent and systemic issue, starting with individuals beyond his inner circle, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi has confirmed that the cases involving Thomas and Hasto Kristiyanto, the former secretary-general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), carry political undertones.