Court rules in favor of PwC

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The South Jakarta District Court ruled on Thursday in favor of accounting firm Hadi Sutanto and Associates, the local unit of U.S.-based PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in an appeal against an earlier ruling by the Business Competition Supervisory Agency (KPPU).

The KPPU, which found Hadi Sutanto guilty of unfair competition against public accountant Eddy Pianto and imposed a Rp 20 billion (US$2.14 million) fine on the firm, said it would appeal to the Supreme Court within a couple of weeks.

KPPU lawyer Wawan Iriawan said the judges could not have not based their verdict on a thorough examination of the evidence.

Eddy Pianto is the former auditor of publicly listed telecommunications firm PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), whose shares are listed both in Jakarta and New York.

The conflict between Eddy and Hadi Sutanto began after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected Telkom's 2002 financial report because it was considered incomplete.

Hadi's office had refused to issue a letter of consent to Eddy to include his audit report on Telkom's cellular subsidiary, PT Telkomsel.

Telkom later appointed Hadi to re-audit its financial report.