KPPU suffers another blow in Indomobil sale case

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.