United States Department of Agriculture
Research, Education, and Economics

ARS * CSREES * ERS * NASS
Policies and Procedures

Contents

1. Summary
2. Policy
3. Planning
4. Tracking
5. Procedures
    10-Year Facilities Plan
    Real Property Management Information System
6. Summary Of Responsibilities
Exhibit 1
Exhibit 2

Congress requests information annually during the budget hearings (February-March) on Agency research facilities that have been eliminated from the real property inventory. This P&P describes the ARS policy and procedures for tracking the disposal of Agency-owned buildings, including the use of demolition. The disposal of buildings is being accomplished by the Areas through demolition; transfer to State, county, municipal, or private ownership; donation; sale; or other means. In view of Agency location closure activity, it has become more difficult to track and report accurately to Congress the building square footage reductions that are occurring. To more effectively control the disposal of these assets, a process is necessary to project building disposals and track the actual disposal actions.

It is the policy of ARS that buildings will be disposed of when they have reached the end of their lifespan and/or are no longer effective or efficient in providing space to carry out the Agency mission.

ARS has been projecting its building modernization requirements at the location level through the 10-Year Facilities Plan. Exhibit 1 is the document to be used to reflect outyear disposal action projections at each location. Using this document, the Area Offices can identify specific buildings to be removed from the inventory, including associated costs and disposal timetables. The 10-Year Facilities Plan is updated on an annual basis, generally during the time period of January through March.

The mechanism for tracking actual disposal actions as they occur is the Agency's Real Property Management Information System (RPMIS). This is the official real property inventory system maintained by each Area Office. Headquarters can generate reports from RPMIS that will help fulfill the annual Congressional reporting requirements. It is important that the RPMIS information on building disposals be most current during January in order for the Agency to accurately report to Congress. Exhibit 2 shows the kinds of disposal data the Areas are responsible for keeping current.

Using the appropriate document (see Exhibit 1), the responsible person in the Area Office will identify for each location the specific buildings the Area plans to remove from the real property inventory. Associated costs and timetables for these disposals should also be shown.

When a building has been disposed of, it must be removed from the active inventory promptly by the person in the Area Office responsible for maintaining the real property inventory. Do not delete the building from RPMIS. Instead, archive the information related to the disposed building using the following steps:

• Step One. Make sure the building is in the system. Check the D040 (Property) screen. If the property is in the system, skip to Step Three. If the property is not in the system, you will need to enter it as though it were still an active property. On the D040 screen, in the Utilization Status Code data field, place a “9" (Disposed) instead of a “1" (Utilized). The “9" designation indicates the property has been disposed. The property will not show up on the regular inventory report. It will show up on the Disposal Report after you fill out the Disposal Screen, as discussed in Step Three.
  
  
• Step Two. Make sure the property has been entered on the D050 (Acquisition) screen. Go to the D050 screen and bring up the property. If the data fields have been entered, you may go to the D065 screen. If the property has not been entered on the D050 screen, fill in the following data fields: Acquisition Method Code, Acquisition Dates, Acquisition Authority Code (always use 003), Initial Acquisition Cost, Estimated Cost Indicator, Negligible Cost Indicator, and the ACQ + IMPROV field in the lower right corner of the screen. Commit your data, then move on to the D065 (Disposal) screen.
  
  
• Step Three. On the D065 (Disposal) screen, complete as many data fields as you have information for or can reasonably estimate. Use the RPMIS Users Guide for codes and definitions for each field. Do not hesitate to call the Real Property Management Branch for assistance (301-344-0207). On the D065 screen:
  
  The Excess Indicator is the code describing this property's excess situation, e.g., Contamination present, Historical issues present, etc.
  
  The Excess Date is the date the property was declared excess, which must be prior to the date it was disposed. Use your best estimate if the actual excess date is unknown.
  
  The Disposal Date is the date the property was disposed of.
  
  The Disposal Method field is where you show the means of disposal, e.g., Transfer, Sale, Donation, Demolition, etc.
  
  For the Disposal Authority, use code 003.
  
  The Disposal Amount is the amount of money the Federal Government received for the sale of this property, if any. If the property was not sold, the amount here should be 0.
  
  If funds were received for the sale of the property, describe the disposition of the funds by placing the appropriate code in the Disposal Proceeds field.
  
  In the Transfer To field, indicate the Federal agency to which the property was transferred. If the Disposal Method was not Transfer, leave this field blank.
  
  The Transfer Date is the date the transfer was completed. If the Disposal Method was not Transfer, leave this field blank.
  
  Leave the Unused Field blank.
  
  In the Disposal Cost field, indicate in the blank space to the right of the data element the total amount of money ARS spent to dispose of the property.
  
  
• Step Four. Once you have completed the appropriate screens for all disposed properties at a particular location, run a Disposal report.
  
  Go to the Data Base Management Screen and choose option 3 (RPMIS Reports).
  
  From the RPMIS Reports Menu, choose 3 (Transaction Reports).
  
  From the RPMIS Transaction Reports Menu, choose 4 (Disposal Reports).
  
  From the RPMIS Disposal Reports Menu, choose 3 (Disposal Report Individual Location)(RPR041). At this selection, you will enter a beginning date and an ending date. Enter dates which are before and after the date you indicated on the Disposal Screen as the date of the disposal of the building. Then, enter the 5-digit Location Number for this location, both as the Beginning Location Number and the Ending Location Number.
      
  The system will run the report automatically. If you want to print the report, choose option 4 (Print Disposal Report).
  
  The Disposal Report will indicate the Disposal Method, Excess and Disposal Dates, the Disposal Amount, the Disposal Proceeds Code, Transferee and Transfer Date, Excess Code, and Outgrant Code for each property that has been disposed of at that location.

Area Administrative Officers.

• Oversight responsibility for plan preparation and inventory data input to RPMIS.

Area Property Management Officers (APMO).

• Collect building disposal data from Location Area Officers at time of building disposal.
• Input building disposal data to RPMIS.

Area Office Engineers.

• Prepare Area's 10-Year Facilities Plan.
• Provide building disposal data to APMO.

Location Administrative Officers.

• At time of disposal, provide building disposal data to APMO.

Facilities Division, Facilities Engineering Branch.

• Exercise quality control on the 10-Year Facilities Plan.
• Promulgate and distribute plan related reports to management.

Facilities Division, Real Property Management Branch.

• Exercise quality control on inventory data in RPMIS.
• Develop and distribute inventory and related reports to management.

JANE L. GILES
Deputy Administrator
Administrative and Financial Management

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2

The excess/disposal process is part of the life cycle of each item of property. ARS is responsible for tracking each property from the beginning to the end of this cycle.

Area Office personnel are responsible for tracking the following types of excess/disposal data for buildings at each location:

Excess Indicator - the current status of the excessing of the property.

Excess Date - the date the property was declared excess by the location or Area.

Disposal Date - the date the property was disposed.

Disposal Method - the method of disposal, such as demolition, sale, transfer, etc.

Disposal Authority - Miscellaneous Public Laws (code 003).

Disposal Amount - the amount of money, if any, received by the Federal Government for the
disposal of this property.

Transfer To - the Federal agency this property was transferred to, if the disposal method was
“Transfer.”

Transfer Date - the date the transfer was made, if the disposal method was “Transfer.”

Disposal Proceeds - where the disposal proceeds, if any, were sent.

Disposal Cost - the amount of money, if any, spent by ARS to dispose of this property.