The Kano State Government was losing about N1 billion annually for not auctioning used items such as electronics, furniture and others which were mostly stolen by individuals.
Secretary of Kano State chapter of the Nigerian Association of Auctioneers (NAA), Isah Deneji stated this while speaking with journalists in Kano.
Deneji explained that the state government was doing a lot of renovations and reconstructions, leading to removal of air conditioners, office furniture, roofing sheets, interlocks and other items.
He however said that the items were not placed for auction as individuals steal them and sell them off.
“I want to call on the Kano State governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf to kindly instruct the Finance Commissioner to resume auctioning of items declared obsolete by the government.
“He is doing a lot of renovations and construction across ministries and departments as well as other places in the state, but the replaced items are left to rotten away or even stolen by some staff.
“We are licensed auctioneers and we renew our licenses annually as professionals, but the government has stopped engaging our services as items worth about N1 billion are lost to theft instead of being sold formally and the state account credited.
“We are from Kano and this opportunity exists in Kano, with all the good work the governor is doing, we can’t go to other states looking for obsolete items to sell,” Deneji said.
He attributed the call on Governor Abba Yusuf to resume the auctioning of obsolete items on the need to prevent theft by individuals or allowing the items to rot away.
He noted rumours of incidences where individuals stole about 20 air conditioners from the renovation of the Government House alone.
Responding, the Commissioner for Works, Marwan Ahmad said he was not aware of the said trend as his ministry is not in charge of auctioning government property.
He explained that it was the duty of the Ministry of Finance to set a board of surveyors to inspect obsolete items and declare them for auctioning.
He however condemned a situation where the public rushed to take away items belonging to the government at reconstruction or renovation sites.
“Just of recent, we collected interlock removed from a particular place worth one million, and kept them here. Another office demanded for them and they were taken there and used, infact they even wanted more than we had,” he stated.
