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.