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IT key to achieving auction target: Finance Ministry 

Improving information technology (IT) played a key role in achieving the target set for auctions last year, a Finance Ministry official said. The realized auction reached Rp26.19 trillion last year, outstripping the government-set target of Rp25 trillion, auction director at the directorate general of state property at the Finance Ministry, Joko Prihanto, said during an online discussion here on Friday. The achievement was extraordinary amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, he remarked.

"The key to the success rests with IT. It (the realized auction) stood at only Rp3 trillion in June, 2020. Therefore, I was surprised when it soared to Rp29.19 trillion at the end of 2020. Our forecast was only Rp25 trillion," he observed.The official website lelang go.id was upgraded with the help of IT because, during the pandemic, sellers could not attend auctions due to large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), he informed.

At the onset, the official website was designed to conduct auctions without requiring buyers to be physically present, but sellers were required to show up. As a result, the realization of auction reached Rp3 trillion until June, 2020 since both sellers and buyers failed to show up amid the pandemic, he said.

The upgrade to the official website allowed the auction process to take place virtually, thus, the physical presence of sellers and buyers was no longer required//ANT