Division of Finance auctions unserviceable items

The THA Division of Finance, Trade and the Economy has announced it will auction its unserviceable assets.

According to a newspaper advertisement, the division intends to sell or dispose of its unserviceable or obsolete items such as light motor vehicle, heavy equipment, boats and other equipment. Anyone interested can bid on forms provided at the viewing sites or the Victor E Bruce Financial Complex, Scarborough.

Bids must be deposited in the tender box at the Victor E Bruce Financial Complex by August 10.

THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said the auction supposed to be done annually after an assessment by public servants.

"Through this process, when we identify vehicles, furniture, computers and other equipment that are no longer serviceable, meaning that they’re no longer up to the demand, the public-service process is to have it auctioned off.”

He said there is actually a public servant in the Division of Finance that is responsible for that, similarly in Trinidad the Ministry of Finance takes that responsibility.

“It really and truly is supposed to be an annual exercise – sometimes it’s once in a blue moon or once in a while but the board of surveys that is done in every division. Every department of the THA must fill out the survey, going through the assets that they have, and it is disposed of via an auctioning process. That is providing that the things are good because sometimes you may have things that are so broken that it is of no use being sold.”

He said in that instance, the board of survey process grants clearance to the THA to dispose of state equipment.

“We can’t dispose of a single thing – if we have a broken chair, meaning that the chair is broken and it's shattered and it’s unusable, we literally cannot put it in the dump. We have to leave it until the board of surveys is done so they can declare it unusable before we can actually dump it. So there is a whole process and that is to allow for accountability.”

He couldn’t recall when the last auction was held.

“I’m not sure if one was held in the last two or three years as we also had covid19 and that lockdown would have locked out the opportunity to do so. And so you can imagine that there is sort of a backlog naturally that we’re trying to have dispensed with.”

Viewing of the assets would begin on July 29and run through to August 3 at the Division of Health in Signal Hill, Assembly Legislature, Division of Education, Division of Settlement, Division of Tourism, Division of Community Development, Division of Infrastructure Mechanical Workshop section, Division of Agriculture Tractor Pool and Marine Training Centre, Division of Youth and Sport, Division of Finance, Trade and the Economy and Office of the Chief Secretary.