Equipment Disposal

This policy ensures proper stewardship in the disposal of surplus capital equipment at Alfred University. Capital equipment is equipment with an original cost of $5,000 or more and has a useful life of greater than one year.

When a department that is the custodian of capital equipment determines that a piece of equipment is no longer being used by the department, they are required to notify the Business Office or Statutory Property Control to obtain approval for disposal.

The Business Office and Property Control will first determine if there is another department within Alfred University that could utilize the equipment. If there is a department that can utilize the equipment, the equipment will be transferred into that department’s custody and a corresponding funding transfer may be made.

If the equipment cannot be used by another University department and is declared surplus, then the Business Office and Property Control will determine if the equipment was purchased using federal grant dollars. Equipment purchased by federal grant dollars is listed by Property Control on a national website for transfer to another federal grant recipient. If there are no other federal awardees interested in the equipment, the equipment can be sold with the proceeds being returned to the federal granting agency.

If the equipment is declared surplus and free of federal funding by the Business Office and Property Control, then the VP of Business and Finance or the Controller may approve the equipment for disposal. Generally, proceeds from the sale of equipment can be placed in an equipment reserve fund to be used to fund the purchase of new equipment by the custodian department.

Disposal must always be an “arms-length transaction.” This means the asking price must reflect what the equipment would sell for in an open market. A couple of examples of approved disposal methods are posting the item on an internet auction site, or asking two or more interested vendors to submit quotes.

If a University employee wishes to purchase the surplus equipment, then documentation must be submitted that supports the fair market value of the equipment and the employee must pay the fair market value. In this case, fair market value would need to be approved by the Deputy Chief Financial Officer or the Controller.