The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference saw a number of controversial Maseratis brought to the country still sitting in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.
Only one custom Maserati and one Bentley have been sold in almost seven months.
APEC minister Justin Tkatchenko says the process of selling them had been “mishandled”.
“The tenders were issued wrongly. That’s the problem.”
“There was no reserve price, so then the whole objective of recouping the funds that we have stated from day one, was not achieved. So, we have to go through that process again.”
40 Maseratis, retail price around $140,000 and three Bentleys were bought for the event.
The purchase of these luxury vehicles was criticized for reckless spending, while failing to deliver basic services for its people.
The Government and APEC authority said the cars would be easily sold and were a necessary purchase for the event.
“We had huge expressions of interest in the beginning and then because of this long, drawn out process, people have lost interest,” Tkatchenko says.
Tkatchenko says the vehicle sales are being handled by the finance department.
“We received all the expressions of interest that covers the cars, but the price that they expressed were just too low and unreasonable.”
Tkatchenko said the cars would “sell like hotcakes” but now he says he is not sure what the loss on the cars would be.
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