The Department of Administrative Services had not referred the Australian Capital Auctions matter to Australian Securities Commission, an ASC spokesman said yesterday.
A departmental officer told the Senate Estimates committee, “”The matter has also been referred to the fraud people in the AFP and the Australian Securities Commission”.
Australian Capital Auctions was the trade name of Sale-O Pty Ltd which went into liquidation owing the Federal Government and others more than $1 million.
A report of the estimates hearing was published on Wednesday under the heading “”ASC inquiry into Sale-O collapse”.
The ASC spokesman said DAS did not refer the case to it and an inquiry is not under way, though the ASC is co-operating with the AFP in its inquiries.
Two people who lost property through the failure of Australian Capital Auctioneers yesterday blamed the Government for their loss.
They said they had relied on the fact that ACA was the authorised government auctioneer and therefore must have been vetted by the government when they gave property to it for auction.
Peter Kaden of Urriara Forest said he had given a $2500 truck gearbox to ACA for auctioning last January. He questioned whether it had been sold several times and was told he would be telephoned. He later found the company went into liquidation.
The gearbox could not be found nor could any record of its sale.
Mr Kaden said he had chosen ACA because it was the authorised government auctioneer through which government property had been sold. He presumed the government had a lot of trust in the company and would be monitoring the company.
Dominico Bililaro, of Queanbeyan, said yesterday that he had given a four-tonne steel-punching press and other material worth about $2000 to the company for auction in January. Once again, the liquidator did not have the press nor a record of its sale.
He said he had gone to ACA because it was the government auctioneer.
Both men questioned why the conduct of the company had not been monitored more closely if it was the authorised government auctioneer.