The Indonesian Supreme Audit Body (BPK) on Monday called on the finance minister to revoke license of public accounting firms which legalized irregularities in state firms and caused losses to the state.

"We already have a list of public accounting firms that will be submitted to the finance minister in order to revoke their licenses," BPK head Anwar Nasution told reporters here.

The sanctions will apply to accounting companies and individuals, he said.

Crooked auditors have taken considerable amount of bribes to help state firms mark up their financial reports, he said without citing names.

"They (auditors) are extraordinarily paid and we suspected that the huge sum of fee is bribe," he said, adding that financial reports should represent the actual conditions of the company concerned and "false reports are utterly useless."

Nasution reminded that poor corporate auditing was the main cause of the bitter financial crisis in 1997. "We must launch accounting reform from now," he said.

Source: Xinhua