Court rules in favor of PwC in audit case

The South Jakarta District Court ruled on Wednesday in favor of accounting firm Haryanto Sahari and Associates, the local unit of U.S.-based PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in a legal battle against public accountant Eddy Pianto.

In its press statement, PwC said the court had confirmed that the audit procedures applied by the company in auditing state- owned telecommunications firm PT Telkom and its cellular subsidiary, PT Telkomsel, were based on existing regulations and the auditors' code of ethics.

"All the evidence was inspected by the court, which concluded that the audit conducted by PwC was in compliance with existing regulations," said the company in its statement.

Eddy Pianto is the former auditor of Telkom, whose shares are listed both in Jakarta and New York.

The conflict between Eddy and PwC began after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected Telkom's 2002 financial report audited by Eddy, as it was considered incomplete.

PwC had refused to issue a letter of consent to Eddy to include the firm's audit result on Telkomsel in the Telkom report.

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

Eddy Pianto later launched a Rp 7.84 trillion (US$922 million) lawsuit against PwC, the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) and Telkom for the losses it suffered due to the problem.

Eddy Pianto's lawyer Wawan Iriawan could not be reached for comment. -- JP