Candidates for Telkom board readied

Candidates for Telkom board readied

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Office of the State Minister for State Enterprises is
currently in the process of selecting candidates to be appointed
as directors and commissioners of state-owned telecommunications
company PT Telkom.

Roes Aryawijaya, a deputy at the ministry, said on Tuesday
that some 30 candidates were participating in the selection test
process, which is expected to be completed before March 10 when
the company is due to hold an extraordinary meeting of
shareholders.

He said that based on the results of the tests, State Minister
for State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi would determine who would
be appointed to the respective boards.

Laksamana last month announced plans to reshuffle the current
members of the board of directors and board of commissioners due
to problems related to the reaudit of the publicly-listed
company's 2002 financial report.

The government, which has a majority 51 percent stake in
Telkom, would propose the changes at the March 10 shareholders
meeting.

Roes said that the new management of Telkom would be made up
of a combination of people from both inside and outside Telkom.

He declined to name the candidates, although some reports said
that the president of another state-owned telecoms firm, PT
Indosat Widya Purnama, and the president of cellular operator PT
Telkomsel Bajoe Narbito were among the candidates for the top
post at Telkom, the country's largest telecoms firm, whose shares
are listed in both the local stock markets and on the New York
Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Problems with Telkom's 2002 financial report emerged when the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected an initial
report audited by Indonesian accounting firm KAP Eddy Pianto,
which is not approved by the SEC.

The SEC demanded that Telkom resubmit its 2002 accounts as
soon as possible or risk being delisted from the New York Stock
Exchange.

It took Telkom some seven months to complete the reaudit
process, something that has clearly irked the government as it
caused uncertainty over Telkom on the NYSE,

Telkom finally announced the reaudit results last month, which
led to a 3.7 percent downward revision in the 2002 consolidated
net profit.