Acquisition of Property

UNM Property Management and Accounting (Policy 7710), states that inventoried property is defined, with one exception, by the following three criteria:

1) The cost is greater than $5,000

2) The property is moveable

3) The property has a useful life of more than one (1) year.

Exceptions:

  • Computers are treated as inventoried property regardless of cost. It must, however, be recorded in inventory and tagged as UNM property. Questions regarding computers should be addressed to the office of Property Accounting at UNMInventory@unm.edu. There are also instructions and guidelines on the website at http://inventory.unm.edu.
  • Furnished property to the University by outside organizations is recorded as a liability to the University and is capitalized but not depreciated. It also must be recorded in inventory and tagged as Loaned Equipment.

Property that the University is responsible for includes all:

  • equipment purchased by University departments, regardless of the source of funds used to purchase the equipment;
  • U. S. Government-owned equipment used by University departments;
  • components and material used to make equipment, whether furnished to, acquired by, or fabricated by the University;
  • property donated to the University;
  • property loaned or leased to the University by outside organizations.

Contractor-Acquired Property

All UNM procurements of Government hardware and material will be made in accordance with the specific policies provided in the UNM Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual - Policy 7710: Property Management and Accounting. Only quantities required to satisfy contract requirements will be procured.

Award Set Up

A contract-specific requirement must be identified and justified for the procurement of hardware, materials and/or expendables in order to satisfy the requirements of that Government contract. Requirements are normally identified by, the awarding government agency policies, CGA and the PI. This is accomplished through the UNM Award Set Up process outlined on the CGA, Main website, http://cgacct.unm.edu/awards/index.html.  Through this process, an index is created in Banner for the contract or grant.

Procurement of Goods

All purchases involving federal funds must comply with the guidelines of the individual contract or grant, and be approved by the University's Main Campus or Health Sciences Center (HSC) Contract and Grant Accounting Department. The purchase of equipment must be necessary, in accordance with the terms of the contract or grant, and comply with U.S. Government regulations. The PI must complete all required government forms by contacting their CGA fiscal monitor. See UNM Policy: (http://policy.unm.edu/university-policies/7000/7710.html) and CGA’s Award Monitoring guidelines found at http://cgacct.unm.edu/awards/index.html.

Once the award notification is sent to the CGA and index is set up in Banner all expenditures must be recorded in Banner. These funds are restricted funds. There are specific ways in which these funds may be spent, and the purchases made with these funds must further the scope of work of the contract or grant award.

It is important to recognize that each contract and each agency may have special reporting requirements affecting the purchase of equipment, including preapproval of specific items. There may be specific forms required to report receipt, major changes affecting equipment or disposition requests, or the Contracting Officer may only require an email or letter to communicate these events. Since many Government agencies are transitioning to web based databases for tracking equipment, this will necessitate coordination between the PI, Contract & Grants department, the department’s Inventory Contact, the department’s DDC, and the Property Accounting department to ensure compliance. UNM’s Contract and Grant Accounting websites have links to the Federal Policies by Agency conveniently located on one page per agency:

UNM Main: http://cgacct.unm.edu/resources/index.html,

HSC: http://hsc.unm.edu/financialservices/cga/funding-agencies.html

Acquired Government Property

There are currently acceptable methods for purchasing goods, which include the Purchasing Card (PCard), the Purchase Requisition, and/or reimbursement through the DP-EZ process. The detailed processes/job aids for these methods can be obtained via the following links:

See PCard Job Aids at http://fssc.unm.edu/job-aids.html#cg.

See LoboMart (Purchasing) Job Aids at http://fssc.unm.edu/job-aids.html#cg.

See DP-EZ Job Aids (Reimbursements) at http://fssc.unm.edu/job-aids.html#cg.

Government-Furnished Property 

Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) is equipment furnished (not purchased) to UNM by the sponsoring government agency. Ownership of this type of equipment is retained by the government agency.

Loaned equipment agreements for research related purposes must flow through the OSP and be signed by a legally binding official.

Loaned equipment agreements for non-research related purposes must flow through the Procurement Office and be signed by the Chief Procurement Officer, the Vice President for Research (HSC) or the University Controller (Main).

It is the responsibility of the receiving department to notify Property Accounting so the equipment can be inventoried and tagged accordingly. OSP and Purchasing Department will send copies of the loan agreement to Property Accounting and alert them for equipment tagging purposes.

Equipment Non UNM Titled Banner Account Code

For Government property, account 9040 (Equipment Non UNM Titled) is used when:

  • Equipment is purchased on a contract or grant which states that the equipment is the property of the funding agency.
  • UNM will not have title to the equipment being purchased.
  • It is movable and has a life that is greater than one (1) year.

CGA will notify Property Accounting when items are to be coded under account code 9040 to be properly monitored as non UNM titled property.

The Property Accounting Department enters the Government Furnished equipment into Banner, see section 3.0 Inventorying Government Property.

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