University Surplus Property (Equipment and                                                                     UPPS No. 05.01.02

Consumable Supplies)                                                                                                         Issue No. 3

Effective Date: 02/28/2006
Review: October 1 E8Y

 

 

01.       POLICY STATEMENTS

 

01.01  This UPPS establishes the policies and procedures for the determination and disposal of university equipment and consumable supplies as surplus property.

 

01.02  Each person affected by this UPPS should devise job procedures or other methods to carry out its instructions.

 

01.03  Texas State University System Regents Rules [Section 6.(13) of Chapter III] delegate to each component’s President the authority to dispose of surplus property.  The applicable Regents Rules are as follows:  

 

6.(13) Disposal of Property and Equipment.  Each component president may dispose of property or equipment considered surplus because it is obsolete or useless for the component’s needs or purposes.  Prior to external disposal in accordance with System and component regulations, such items may be made available to other system components.

 

6.(13)1 The president shall have the authority to dispose of property or equipment with a book value of less than the capitalization value determined by the Comptroller’s Office on the basis of negotiation, competitive bid or transfer to another governmental subdivision including a city, county or public school district.

 

6.(13)2 Sale of property or equipment with a book value equal to or more than the Comptroller’s capitalization amount shall be made on a basis of competitive bids.

 

6.(13)3 Sale of property or equipment less than five years old and with a book value of $10,000 or more shall be approved in advance by the Chairman of the Finance and  Audit Committee.

 

6.(13)4 Surplus instructional property and equipment must first be advertised through the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board prior to disposition.

 

6.(13)5 Surplus computer equipment must be offered to the Texas Department of Corrections prior to disposition under sub-sections 1, 2, or 3 above.

 

6.(13)6 Exchange and Disposal of Surplus Library Materials.  To facilitate sharing of information resources and reduction of costs, component libraries may exchange surplus library materials by:

 

(1) Offering such materials to local public, school or other governmental libraries with preference given to low performing schools per Texas Government Code, §2175.304; and/or,

 

(2) Bartering with or exchanging materials with other system libraries; and/or,

 

(3) Making such materials available for exchange through TexShare or appropriate national library materials exchange lists, provided no other system library desires the materials; and/or,

 

(4) After thirty (30) days on TexShare or appropriate national library materials exchange lists, notifying “out-of-print” book dealers and negotiating sale or exchange of materials.

 

01.04  All items of equipment and consumable supplies are procured by one of the following methods:

a.   Purchases from state or local funds.

 

b.   Inter-agency or inter-department transfer.

 

c.   University manufactured.

 

d.   Gifts-in-kind (i.e., donated equipment or property)

 

e.   Purchases from sponsored program funds.

 

01.05  All items of equipment and consumable supplies become the property of the University and when no longer useful may be disposed of only as set forth in this UPPS.

 

01.06  The President has designated the Director of Materials Management as the agency’s Property Manager (per UPPS No. 05.01.01 [Section 03.02 d.]. In that capacity, he or she has primary responsibility for the disposal of surplus property [Section 08]. All dispositions of surplus property must be authorized by the Director of Materials Management.

 

01.07  This UPPS does not deal with non-State property seized or recovered in the course of police investigations or police actions.  However, it is acceptable for seized or recovered property which remains unclaimed to be sold as part of the University’s Annual Surplus Auction.

 

02.       PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINATION, REMOVAL AND DISPOSAL OF SURPLUS PROPERTY

 

02.01  The account manager is responsible for determining when equipment or consumable supplies have become “surplus” and are no longer useful for university business purposes.  The State Property Accounting division of the State Comptroller’s Office defines surplus as:  Any personal property which is in excess of the needs of any state agency and which is not required for its foreseeable need. Surplus property may be new or used but must have additional useful life.  Account managers should consult with their chair, dean or director, and members of their department as to whether others within the department might have use for the items.

 

02.02 Account managers who determine they have surplus property shall inform Property Management of their need to have the items picked up by completing the on-line Property Management form:  Request for Items to Be Picked Up for Surplus

 

02.03  Property Management will remove surplus property from the department to the University Distribution Center.

 

02.04  The Director of Materials Management will determine the appropriate disposal method for the surplus property.

 

02.05  Surplus property found to be beyond repair will be destroyed.

 

02.06  At least one week prior to the printing of a flier announcing a scheduled Surplus Property Auction, the Director of Materials Management will notify account managers by memorandum of the auction and give them an opportunity to view all items to be auctioned. Surplus property that can be used by another department will be pulled and kept for that purpose.

 

02.07  Other property (not sold as part of an annual surplus property auction) found to be of no further use to the University will be sold under sealed bids to the highest bidder.

 

02.08  The University will place proceeds from sales of surplus property in its General Fund.

 

02.09  The Director of Materials Management and the Vice President for Finance and Support Services must approve exceptions to this procedure.

 

03.       PROCEDURES FOR DISPOSAL OF COMPUTER EQUIPMENT AND DOCUMENTATION

 

03.01  The sale, transfer, or disposal of computers, computer peripherals, and computer software can create information security risks for Texas State. These risks are related to potential violation of software license agreements, unauthorized release of confidential information, and unauthorized disclosure of trade secrets, copyrights, and other intellectual property that might be stored on the hard disks and other storage media.

 

03.02  All account managers, function managers, or university employees with responsibility for any computer system, LAN, or computer lab must take any and all reasonable steps to limit Texas State's liability and risk. These steps include:

 

a.   Due to the advances in computer forensics, simply deleting the data and formatting the disk will not prevent someone from restoring the data.  Therefore, before a computer system is sold or otherwise disposed of, all program or data files on any storage media be completely sanitized or otherwise made unreadable unless there is the specific intent to transfer specific software or data to the purchaser.  A “Clean Hard Drive” form must be processed in accordance with instructions from Information Technology (IT).  Refer to the form on the IT website at http://www.tr.txstate.edu/hardware/

 

b.   Whenever licensed software is resident on any computer media being sold, transferred, or otherwise disposed of, the terms of the license agreement must be followed.

 

c.   Any sale or transfer should contain a "hold harmless" clause indicating that it is not the intention of Texas State to transfer any licensed software that may reside on any media involved in the transfer.

 

d.   In some circumstances, destruction of the computer software or media may be the most cost effective strategy for eliminating any risk or liability to Texas State.

 

04.       PROCEDURES FOR DISPOSAL OF POLICE EQUIPMENT

 

04.01  The sale, transfer, or disposal of police vehicles, emergency equipment, firearms, uniforms, badges, radios, ammunition, and tear gas present a special risk for Texas State. Those risks relate primarily to public misuse, public safety, and misrepresentation as police officers.

 

04.02  The Director of the University Police Department (UPD) or his or her designee shall be responsible for the disposal of items or like items referred to in Section 04.01, except where police vehicles are concerned. Disposal of marked police vehicles will be a shared responsibility of the Director of the UPD and the Director of Materials Management.

 

04.03  Before any marked police vehicle is sold, transferred, or traded, all police markings must be thoroughly obliterated through sanding and repainting.

 

04.04  The disposal of firearms, ammunition, tear gas, and radios shall be at the discretion of the Director of the UPD or his or her designee except that such items may not be converted to the personal ownership of any member of UPD or sold to any member of the public. Firearms may be traded to vendors for replacement equipment or issued to officers as off-duty weapons. Non-tradable or dysfunctional weapons will be destroyed and a complete record maintained concerning the item destroyed and the method of destruction.

 

04.05  Non-serviceable or outdated uniforms, badges, and emergency equipment shall be traded for replacement items or destroyed by the Director of the UPD or his or her designee. Badges may be transferred to employees of UPD upon retirement or to their families upon death or under other special circumstances when approved by the President of Texas State.

 

05.       REVIEWERS OF THIS UPPS

 

05.01    Reviewers of this UPPS include the following:

 

Position                                                          Date

 

Director, Materials Management                October 1 E8Y

 

Assistant Vice President for                        October 1 E8Y

Technology Resources

 

Director, University Police Department      October 1 E8Y

 

06.       CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

 

This UPPS has been approved by the following individuals in their official capacities and represents Texas State policy and procedure for the date of this document until superseded.

 

Director of Materials Management; senior reviewer of this UPPS

 

Associate Vice President for Financial Services & Treasurer

 

Vice President for Finance and Support Services

 

President