Kano State government is said to lose about N1 billion annually due to the lack of auctioning used items, including electronics, furniture, and others, which individuals mostly steal.
Isah Deneji, secretary of the Nigerian Association of Auctioneers (NAA), Kano State chapter, stated this recently while speaking to newsmen.
He explained that the state government is conducting extensive renovations and reconstructions that have resulted in the removal of air conditioners, office furniture, roofing sheets, interlocks, and other items.
However, he said that unlike the usual procedure, the items are 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.
“Our call to the state governor is to resume the auctioning of obsolete items and not allow them to be stolen by individuals or rotten away,” he stated.
Rumours have circulated that individuals have stolen about 20 air conditioners from the renovation of the Government House alone.
Responding to the matter, the commissioner for Works, Marwan Ahmad, said he is not aware of the said trend as his ministry is not in charge of auctioning government property.
He explained that it is the duty of the Ministry of Finance to set a board of surveyors to inspect obsolete items and declare them for auction.
However, he lamented the unfortunate behavior of the public in recent times, where people rush to take away items, including metal rods, wires, and others, wherever they see the government undertaking reconstruction or renovation.
He explained that his ministry collects removed items, stores them, and recycles them where they are needed in government offices.
“Just recently, we collected interlock removed from a particular place worth one million, and kept them here. Another office demanded them and they were taken there and used, in fact, they even wanted more than we had,” he stated.
As regards the items that are said to have been stolen, the commissioner said he is not aware of any incident but will look into it to ensure that those involved are tracked down accordingly.
Items worth hundreds of millions of naira are removed due to renovations and reconstructions in the state, but are not auctioned in the state, as they are left to rot away or stolen by individuals.
