Yogya to auction off official cars

YOGYAKARTA: In a bid to ensure transparency in the management of government assets, the Yogyakarta provincial government will organize an open auction to sell 82 used official vehicles next week.

The auction is scheduled for Feb. 26. However, many people have started to crowd the gubernatorial office compound since Monday to take a close look at the vehicles on offer.

"We hope that with the auction, we will have a clean, fair and transparent sale of used official assets so that surprising happenings of the past will not recur in the future," said the Yogyakarta governor, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X.

He was referring to corruption cases implicating former heads of local government offices in connection with the sale of state assets belonging to their offices.

The governor said that through the auction, the provincial government would hopefully get better prices for the cars.

Vehicles to be auctioned are 44 minibuses, 20 jeeps, eight pickups, eight sedans, one large bus and one large truck. --JP