Three firms get Bapepam penalties

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Three publicly listed companies and three public accountants have been subjected to penalties and fines by the country's capital market watchdog for violating the regulations.

The Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) said Friday in Jakarta that the three firms were PT Teijin Indonesia Fiber Corporation Tbk (TFCO), PT Arona Binasejati Tbk (ARTI) and PT Mobil Sukses Internasional Tbk (IMAS).

The agency said that PT Teijin was fined Rp 370 million (about US$3,9785) for a delay in submitting its accounts for the first half of 2004. The company had also failed to publish its accounts.

Meanwhile, PT Arona was found guilty of making a mistake in the comments on its accounts. For this, the company received a written warning from Bapepam.

Indomobil was fined Rp 500 million for not following the required procedures when it extending a loan to an affiliate.

Bapepam also said that it had imposed penalties on three public accountants for violating the capital market public accounting regulation.

The agency said that the three accountants were Yahya Santosa, Jonnardi and Bambang Sudaryono.

Yahya breached the regulation prohibiting a public accountant from auditing the same listed company for three years consecutively. Jonnardi also audited the same company for more than three years, consercutively.

For these violations, Bapepam suspended the two accountants' practice licenses for 12 months.

The other accountant, Bambang, was given a written warning for the mistake in PT Arona's accounts, which he audited.

"Two of the accountants have been barred from performing audits for a year, while the other one was given a written warning," the head of Bapepam's legal division, Robinson Simbolon, said in a written statement.

The watchdog has also issued a written warning to PT Pusako Tarinka for hiring Yahya for more than three consecutive years to audit its books. (dic)