Policy, Responsibilities, and Terms for Personal Property Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW

1.1 What is the purpose of this chapter? This chapter describes the authorities and responsibilities for all the chapters in Part 310, Personal Property Management, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) Manual. Part 310 supplements 410 Departmental Manual (DM) 1, the Department of the Interior Property Management Directives (IPMD) and applicable Acquisition, Arts, and Asset Policy (DOI-AAAP). See Table 1-1 for the organization of Part 310.

Table 1-1: Service Manual Chapters for Personal Property Management

1.2 What is the scope of and overall policy under Part 310?

A. Scope: The chapters in Part 310 of the Service Manual apply to all employees involved in using and managing personal property that the Service owns or leases. See Part 320 of the Service Manual for policies on fleet management.

B. Overall policy: It is our policy to:

(1) Comply with all Federal and Department of the Interior (Department) personal property management policy and directives;

(2) Establish uniformity across the Service’s property management program;

(3) Implement and enforce an effective internal control program for property management to protect Government assets and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse; and

(4) Ensure employees use Government property for official purposes only to carry out the Service’s mission and objectives.

1.3 What terms do you need to know to understand the chapters in Part 310?

A. Accountable property. Non-expendable personal property with a useful life of 2 years or more for which we maintain accountability or property control records, and which may or may not be charged to a general ledger control account. Accountable property includes system-controlled, bureau-managed, capitalized, non-capitalized, sensitive, leased and contractor-held property, and stores property. Leased information technology equipment (e.g., copiers) is not managed as system-controlled property.

B. Accountable Property Officer. A manager, Project Leader, supervisor, or other employee who is responsible for the overall management of personal property assigned to a specific accountable area or cost center. The Accountable Property Officer also must oversee the acquisition, use, maintenance, tracking, and disposal of all personal property for which they are responsible and ensure alignment with Service policy and performance objectives.

C. Acquisition with Automated Offsetting Entry (ABZON). This is a type of transaction we use to create records for personal property items that are donated, found in inventory, purchased with credit cards, or transferred into the Service from another agency. In addition, we use the ABZON transaction to adjust the acquisition cost to account for shipping and delivery costs as well as any property traded in for capitalized personal property purchases.

D. Ammunition. Small arms ammunition or cartridge cases, primers, bullets, or smokeless propellants designed for use in small arms, including percussion caps, 3/32 inch, and other external burning pyrotechnic hobby fuses. The term does not include black powder.

E. Board of Survey. A group appointed to review and investigate all circumstances surrounding lost, stolen, or damaged Government property or its destruction; make impartial decisions concerning the disposition of the property; and, if appropriate, determine financial liability for the employer/employee for the lost, stolen, or damaged property. A Board consists of three or more appointed individuals and one chairperson. The Regional Director (or the Assistant Director – Management and Administration, for Headquarters) appoints individuals for a minimum term of 1 year, but not longer than 3 years.

F. Bureau-managed property. Personal property with an original acquisition cost of $300 to $4,999, excluding sensitive and museum property. We do not record bureau-managed property in the Financial and Business Management System (FBMS), but we track it at a local level. We also refer to this property category as local property.

G. Capitalized personal property. Non-expendable property with a useful life of 2 years or more and an acquisition cost at or above the capitalization threshold of $25,000. It does not include property acquired through loan or museum property. We may capitalize property converted to ownership at the end of a lease period.

H. Cognizant employee. Any Service or contract employee who uses Government property, and therefore is responsible for the proper and reasonable care, use, safekeeping, and disposal/return of such property.

I. Custodial Property Officer. Serves as the Accountable Property Officer’s operating official with daily control and supervision of personal property assigned to a specific accountable area or cost center. This designation may or may not correspond to the individual's job title.

J. Disposition. One of several methods of managing excess personal property, including transfers, sales, trade-ins, donations, destruction, disposals, and recycling.

K. Excess property. When personal property is no longer needed by the activities within a cost center to carry out the functions of official programs.

L. Expendable property. Non-sensitive property with a normal life expectancy of less than 2 years and an acquisition cost of less than $300. It is usually consumed in the normal course of its use or becomes an integral part of another item.

M. Firearms (sensitive property). Any weapon that is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the energy of an explosive. Training firearms, firearms suppressors, and destructive devices, such as flash-bang distraction devices, are treated as firearms.

N. Less lethal device. An instrument, device, or weapon designed to be used in a manner not likely to cause death or serious bodily injury. Examples include, but are not limited to, Conducted Electrical Weapons (CEW), also known as electronic control devices, electronic control weapons, and TASER devices; impact weapons; and certain chemical agents. These are also commonly referred to as “intermediate force” or “less than lethal” weapons or devices.

O. Museum property (sensitive, non-capitalized). An assemblage of museum objects collected according to a rational scheme and maintained so they can be preserved, studied, or interpreted for public benefit. Museum objects include prehistoric and historic objects, artifacts, works of art, non-record archival documents, and natural history specimens that are part of museum collections. Museum property does not include those items necessary to display a collection, such as exhibit cases, dioramas, special lighting, graphics, replicas, etc.

P. Non-expendable property. Property that has a continuing use, is not consumed in use, is of a durable nature with an expected service life of 2 or more years, has an acquisition cost of $300 or more, or is identified as sensitive property.

Q. Personal property. Property of any kind or an interest in that property. Specifically, personal property includes all equipment, materials, supplies, and museum objects. The definition excludes real property and any property incorporated into or permanently affixed to it (e.g., a building), records of the Federal Government, and naval (military) vessels.

R. Property accountability. The assigned responsibility and liability associated with the management of Government property. It includes the responsibility for establishing and maintaining property records, safeguarding property, and ensuring its proper use, as well as submitting required reports. It also includes the liability associated with loss, theft, damage, or destruction of Government property.

S. Property irregularities. Repetitive losses of a particular type of property or recurring losses at a given location; losses of a suspicious nature; evidence of serious misconduct or irregularity (e.g., fraud, falsification of records); known, suspected, or alleged fraud, waste, or abuse, or misappropriation of Government property; or loss or theft of a firearm or weapon, ammunition, explosives, hazardous materials, or a controlled substance.

T. Reviewing authority. A management official designated by the head of the bureau/office or the Property Management Officer to provide technical and procedural guidance to Boards of Survey/Survey Officers.

U. Sensitive property. Property that is system-controlled, regardless of value, by detailed accountability records. Sensitive property must, at a minimum, include firearms and museum property. Bureaus and offices may develop additional categories of property that they determine to be sensitive and for which they will maintain detailed property accountability records (see 310 FW 2, Table 2-1 for a list of the Service’s sensitive property).

V. System-controlled property. Property with an original acquisition cost of $5,000 or more and sensitive property, regardless of cost. System-controlled property must be recorded and controlled in a bureau/office property management system.

W. Unclaimed or abandoned property. Personal property that is found on premises that the Service owns or leases. The Service may retain it for official use and process it for utilization and disposal.

1.4 What are the authorities for Part 310?

A. Departmental IPMD, 410 Addition, Supplement to the Federal Property Management Regulations (41 CFR 102).

B. DOI-AAAP, Acquisition, Arts, and Asset Policy documents, including:

(1) DOI AAAP-0013, Implementation of Mandatory Training - Firearms Accountability Course;

(2) DOI-AAAP-0035, Purchase Requests;

(3) DOI AAAP-0041, Mandatory Use of FBMS for Personal Property Disposal;

(4) DOI AAAP-0111, Stolen, Lost, Damaged, or Destroyed Personal Property;

(5) DOI AAAP-0120, Classifying Property, Plant, and Equipment;

(6) DOI AAAP-0121, Property, Plant, and Equipment Acquisition Cost Determination;

(7) DOI AAAP-0122, Property, Plant, and Equipment – Capitalization Criteria;

(8) DOI AAAP-0125, Property, Plant, and Equipment Depreciation; and

(9) DOI-AAAP-0146,Transfer of Excess Equipment and Supplies for Wildfires.

C. Exchange or Sale of Similar Items, Property Management, Procurement and Warehousing (40 U.S.C. 503).

D. Federal Information Resources Management Regulation (41 CFR Subtitle E).

E. Federal Management Regulation (FMR), 102-36, Disposition of Excess Personal Property (FMR 102-36).

F. Federal Tort Claims Act (28 U.S.C. 1346, 1402, and 2671 through 2680).

G. Government Performance Results Act of 1993 (5 U.S.C. 305 et. seq.).

H. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular No. A-123, Management’s Responsibility for Enterprise Risk Management and Internal Control; and No. A-130, Managing Information as a Strategic Resource.

I. Public Contracts and Property Management (41 CFR 101).

J. Public Money, Property, or Records (18 U.S.C. 641).

K. Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as amended (15 U.S.C. 3710).

L. 410 DM, Personal Property Management; 411 DM, Identifying and Managing Museum Property; 446 DM 10, Firearms Standards; and 374 DM 6, Donations.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1.5 Who is responsible for personal property management? See Table 1-2.

Table 1.2: Roles and Responsibilities for Personal Property Management at the Headquarters and Regional Level