UPR Reconciliation Policy

Since 1994, NOAA has progressed from a Disclaimer of Opinion (fail) to a Unqualified Opinion (passed) on its FY 1998 Consolidated Balance Sheet. In order to maintain this Opinion in future audits, NOAA must continue to comply with pertinent laws and regulations and improve its internal control procedures governing the reconciliation of new acquisitions of accountable personal property.

NOAA still has several million dollars worth of unreconciled property purchases on its books. For details, and to reconcile, please visit NOAA's Personal Property Home Page on the Web at: http://titan.rdc.noaa.gov/prop/noaaprop/noaaupr.html. We are eager to work with you and your organizations to clean up these purchases. It is our goal that none of the currently unreconciled procurements from the previous fiscal year will remain, and any new purchases will continue to be reconciled in a timely fashion.

Further, NOAA's Property Management Office is committed to adhering to rules governing "Inventory Adjustments" and "Non-compliance with Reconciliation Policy." These rules are explained below:

A. Inventory Adjustments

No item will be recorded in the property system as "Found" (Inventory Adjustment) without written justification and the approval of the Eastern or Western Hub Team Lead. As a minimum, the justification will include the following:

Certification by the Property Custodian that the item in question is NOT a recent purchase and that the Unreconciled Payments Report (UPR) on the Web has been researched to ensure that the item is NOT part of an unreconciled property purchase listed on the Web UPR;

That reasonable efforts have been made to obtain copies of the underlying acquisition documentation such as purchase orders, purchase card statements, etc., and that all efforts have been made to ensure that the item is not already listed on the inventory under another custodian.

B. Non-compliance with Reconciliation Policy

While the Property Custodian plays a key role in reconciling new acquisitions of accountable personal property with financial disbursements, it is NOT solely the Custodian's responsibility. The organization's Property Accountability Officer, who is "responsible for ensuring the effective administration and maintenance of a system of control and accountability for personal property assigned to their accountability area" (Department of Commerce Personal Property Management Manual) must ensure that Property Custodians are provided adequate support. Reconciliation is the organization's business.

Everyone in the organization who purchases or uses accountable personal property has responsibility in this area. This is especially true of purchase card holders and "Authorizing Officials" who approve monthly purchase card statements for payment. It should be made clear to those that play a role in the acquisition process that non-compliance with reconciliation policy may result in loss of purchasing authority. Therefore, to ensure that effective property reconciliation is achieved in the future, we are instituting the following procedure:

Property Custodians will ensure that any newly acquired accountable personal property is tagged within 10 days of receipt of an item (or notification of an item having been received) in the workplace. Property Custodians will ensure that the property is recorded into Sunflower no later than 15 days after the date that Finance paid for the item.
Property Accountability Officers and Property Custodians are hereby directed to monthly monitor their unreconciled purchases shown on the Web UPR to ensure prompt reconciliation;
Property Office Representatives are directed to follow up on any purchase that remains unreconciled for more than 90 days after payment a minimum of every two weeks until the purchase has been reconciled.
Further, Property Custodians are directed to initiate a paper CD-52 Report of Review of Property on any unexplained unreconciled property purchase remaining on the UPR for more than 120 days after payment. Unexplained property purchases remaining on the UPR for more than 120 days will be treated the same as any other lost, possibly stolen, or otherwise misappropriated property. Payments recorded in the Finance system against object class code 31 are assumed to be for accountable property unless explained otherwise. The Property Custodian is also responsible for gathering the underlying proof of payment documentation and forwarding the information, along with the CD-52, to appropriate authorities for investigation;
Along with the annual physical inventory, Property Custodians will be required to certify that they have reconciled all procurements made up to that point in time and that all procurements of accountable property have been documented in the Property system; and
Non-compliance with the above policies will be brought to the attention of NOAA's CFO/CAO. Failure to comply with reconciliation policy may result in loss of purchasing authority.

NOAA Personal Property is committed to complete reconciliation of all purchases of personal property. We are confident that with your cooperation we will succeed in bringing the unreconciled procurements down to the point where there are no more than 90 days worth of payments which have not been accounted for in the Property System. Your cooperation in ensuring that we accomplish this task is crucial to NOAA continuing to receive an "Unqualified Audit Opinion."

For further information, please contact the Personal Property Management Branch at (301) 713-3530.