KPPU suffers another blow in Indomobil sale case

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Jakarta District Court overturned the ruling of the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) made against Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) and PT Bhakti Asset Management for involvement in the high-profile Indomobil scandal.

"The definition of conspiracy (charged by KPPU against the two firms) is different to what is defined under Article 22 of Anti Monopoly Law No. 5/1999," said presiding judge Rusdy As'ad in his decision on Thursday.

According to the law, business players are prohibited from conspiring with other parties to win a tender.

KPPU decided in May that accounting firm DTT, investment company Bhakti, and four other firms were guilty of conspiring in the sale of the government's 72 percent stake in PT Indomobil Sukses Internasional last year.

The transaction was won by a consortium led by PT Trimegah Securities firm. Bhakti is part of the consortium, DTT was the financial adviser to the government.

The commission imposed penalties on the above firms. But DTT and Bhakti immediately filed an appeal with the district court to contest the KPPU ruling.

This is the second court loss suffered by KPPU in the Indomobil case.

Earlier, the State Administrative Court overturned the KPPU's decision made against Trimegah.

But KPPU said it would file an appeal with the Supreme Court. It said the ruling had undermined the commission's role as an anti-monopoly watchdog.

Indomobil is one of the various assets pledged by the Salim Group to the government to pay its massive debts.

But when the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) sold the government's stake in the country's second largest automaker via a tender to the Trimegah consortium, there were accusations the transaction was plagued with irregularities because the consortium paid a surprisingly low Rp 625 billion for the stake. When the same stake was transferred to the government in the late 1990s its value was set at Rp 2.14 trillion.

Suspicions were also rife that the founder of Indomobil was behind the consortium. The government has banned the automaker founder, the Salim Group, from repurchasing the company.

This prompted KPPU, which was set up to ensure fair business practice as stipulated in the anti-monopoly law, to set up an investigation.

In its May ruling, KPPU also asked the Attorney General's Office to launch an investigation into IBRA officials who may have been involved in the scandal.

Meanwhile, DTT, in its statement, welcomed the decision saying, "it reaffirms that DTT has discharged its duties as a financial adviser professionally and in accordance to international standards".

The court gave KPPU two weeks to file an appeal to the Supreme Court.