Federal Excess Personal Property (FEPP) FS Policy



	POLICY CHANGES AFFECTING FEPP A recent (1996-1997) audit of the USDA Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management Federal Excess Personal Property (FEPP) program encouraged the Forest Service to work with the State partners in this program to change some procedures in the management of FEPP. Probably the most significant policy change has been the implementation of a Standard Review Procedure which will be used by Forest Service Regional FEPP program managers when they review State operations. This procedure will facilitate consistent application of the laws and regulations which govern the use of FEPP in State fire management programs. Issues of negligence had never been addressed nationally; each FS region was free to impose whatever it saw as reasonable penalties on a State cooperator that lost or damaged an item of FEPP due to negligence. The FS recently issued an Interim Directive which specifies what happens when a truck or other FEPP item is lost or damaged because of the negligence of the operator or custodian. In the late 1980's, the FS began requiring their State cooperators to track component items (engines, transmissions, aircraft parts, etc) by serial number if the original acquisition cost exceeded a specific dollar threshhold. This has been changed to allow States to apply warehousing principles to the management of consumable and component inventory. Photo courtesy Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, Bureau of Forestry Last Updated: December 20, 2000 TOP OF PAGE Return to FEPP Home Page