The General Authority for Government Services reported to Finance Minister Amr El-Garhy its activity for fiscal year (FY) 2015/16, reporting that it achieved earnings of more than EGP 650m through holding 101 auctions to sell goods and commodities that were obsolete or confiscated by customs, according to the head of the authority and member of the state land recovery committee, Ayman Gohar.

The authority auctioned the movable and immovable property that the authority was authorised to sell by the state administrative body and public authorities in order to eliminate the problem of overstock and scrap.

Moreover the authority is preparing for the sale of retrieved state land. Conditions pamphlets are currently being prepared to sell 37,000 feddans in Wadi El-Natroun in order to present them to the State Land Recovery Committee for approval.

“The dates and location of auctions will be announced on the websites of the Ministry of Finance, the General Authority for Government Services, and the government procurement portal,” Said Gohar.

He added that these actions come as a result of the implementation of the State Land Recovery Committee’s decision that was formed by a presidential decree in a recent meeting headed by Ibrahim Mehleb, the presidential adviser for national and strategic projects, mandating that the General Authority for Government Services take all the action needed in order to sell recovered state land.

The auctions’ revenues will be deposited in the “people’s right” account that was opened in the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) as a supportive account to the consolidated treasury accounts in the CBE.

Gohar explained that the authority sold 46 shops out of the 58 affiliated social housing fund shops in Port Said in a public auction held on 31 July, with auction revenues of about EGP 28m. He noted that in July, 10 auctions were held to sell the confiscated and discarded items at customs with auction revenues of more than EGP 75m.