Show huge property surplus a mess top officials give various I 1 reasons for Situation confronting U S washington A huge backlog of surplus government property is P piling up the greatest part of it still Is being held by the owning agencies such as the army navy and maritime commission only about a third of the estimated surplus has been released by these agencies and only about one tenth of this has been sold top officials in the surplus property picture agreed that the government had a amess mess on its hands but each saw a different reason briefly this Is the way surplus property is handled the overall over all policies concerning disposal are s set et b by y th the e surplus property administration under authority from congress the SPA does not sell the owning agencies decide what goods they dont need and declare them surplus then it is up to the disposal agencies c to get rid ot of them the reconstruction finance corporation po ration is charged with selling plants plant equipment planes and consumer goods the maritime commission the national housing agency and agriculture department also dispose ot of goods that come within their sphere 0 of f operation sold at loss the office of the foreign liquidation commissioner is charged with disposing of surpluses held abroad A total of is expected to be declared surplus in the year ended next june 30 the total declared surplus and made available for or disposal bisp osal through november is sales have covered property which originally cost the government the go government obtained only a comparatively small portion of the property declared surplus is consumer goods such as automobiles trucks clothing textiles shoes and other items which are still scarce on the civilian markets through november a total of worth had been released by the owning agencies and ot of this only worth was sold officials pointed out that a large chunk of the property which has been declared surplus so tar far constitutes utes airplanes of which only a small percentage was considered salable the which Is charged with aircraft disposal has sold worth of planes out of an available inventory of slow on war plants in addition it has acquired worth of all ali craft listed as probably not salable it has disposed of worth of the latter mostly for salvage purposes at a price of 1214 DOO the rest of these planes will be destroyed another slow moving item is former war plants the through N november ov ember acquired worth of surplus pa plants ants and disposed of GO worth at public interest generally Is centered in consumer goods but the surplus property ad administration said the governments chief interest is getting the former war plants sold so they can be placed in c civilian production and put men to work as quickly as possible the SPA pointed out that consumer goods represent only a small portion of the governments surplus it estimated that by the end of june consumer goods declared surplus will total only as compared with to in plants plant and about DO in planes |