13.13 / Safeguarding of State Property

Effective: January 08, 2002Last Revised: April 26, 2016

  1. Purpose

    The purpose of this policy statement is to respond to a state of Kansas directive that state agencies establish a policy for the safeguarding of state property.

  2. Preamble

    Only property items with a value of $5,000 or more with a useful life exceeding one year are reported on the University's fixed asset listing; however, the University is responsible for safeguarding all state property. In this regard, each University employee has stewardship responsibilities for University property assigned to said employee or otherwise in the employee's control.

  3. Policy

    1. The University owns all property purchased with state of Kansas funds and all property received as gifts, regardless of which University organizational unit ordered the item, the source of funds or the particular budget expensed.

    2. Although title to property purchased with grant or contract funds may not be legally vested with the University, the University should exercise the responsibilities of ownership for such property.

    3. University property may only be used in the conduct of official University business.

    4. University departments are responsible for ensuring that University property items costing less than $5,000 are safeguarded and later disposed of in accordance with state and University policies on the disposal of surplus property. See Section 13.12 of the WSU Policies and Procedures Manual.

    5. A University employee discovering the theft of University property must report the theft to the employee's supervisor as soon as possible, but no later than three calendar days from the date of discovery. The supervisor must then notify the Office of Financial Operations and Business Technology and the University Police Department.

    6. Equipment acquisitions with a life expectancy exceeding one year and a cost of $5,000 or more and capital improvement projects costing $100,000 or more should be coded as capital assets (4XX0). Equipment acquisitions with a useful life expectancy of one year or more and a total cost less than $5,000 and capital improvement projects with a total cost less than $100,000 should be coded as non-capital assets (4XX9). For capital asset reporting purposes, only software and software projects costing $250,000 or more are to be classified as capital assets.

    7. The University will have a "property management officer." The duties of the University's property management officer shall include:

      1. Maintaining the University's official property inventory system;
      2. Coordinating the additions of capital assets into the Banner Fixed Assets system and managing the assignment and affixing of property numbers to the equipment;
      3. Coordinating changes of inventory items and the disposal of capital assets (see Section 13.12);
      4. Coordinating the annual physical inventory of state property.

  4. Implementation

    This policy shall be included in the WSU Policies and Procedures Manual and shared with appropriate constituencies of the University.

    The Director of Financial Operations and Business Technology shall have primary responsibility for publication, dissemination and distribution of this University policy.