Army Regulation AR 735-5 Property Accountability Policies 22 August 2013

Product Information

Command responsibility obligates unit commanders to ensure the property in their command is properly used, cared for, and kept safe. Commanders cannot delegate command responsibility.

Next, the appointing authority forwards the FLIPL, along with their recommendation, to the approving authority, usually a colonel or above. The approving authority approves or disapproves the recommendation to assess liability, but before making the decision, he or she receives a legal opinion that the findings and recommendations are legally sufficient and that the FLIPL was completed in accordance with AR 735-5. FLOs look for four elements in a FLIPL: responsibility, negligence, proximate cause, and loss. Negligence, arguably the most important, must be present before a hand receipt holder can be liable for property loss. FLOs submit the completed FLIPL to the JAG office, which performs a legal review to confirm or refute findings of all four elements. Hand receipt holders, FLOs, and JAGs can benefit from understanding what types of evidence supports the four elements of a FLIPL. Sensitive-item inventories are conducted every month by an NCO or officer. These inventories account for all equipment deemed sensitive on the hand receipt, which is normally everything contained in an arms room to include communications equipment. INVENTORY RECORDS. Recording every step in the inventory is an essential factor to reduce the possibility of negligence. The paper trail should start on day one of the inventory. Current and future hand receipt holders should bring a tape measure, digital camera, pen, and paper. Using a digital camera creates a photographic record of property, identifies features and serial numbers, and creates evidence that can help defeat a claim of negligence, provided the date-time stamp option is on. The purpose of the pen and paper is to record notes about property. The serial number, date of inventory, and any issues must be recorded. This information is used to correct deficiencies through administrative adjustment reports that list the issues and deficiencies identified with property during an inventory.Field exercise inventories should take place within 15 days of the end of an exercise. These inventories should also occur before and after deployments. This inventory should trigger component hand receipt updates. When Army property is lost or damaged, financial responsibility can fall upon the Soldier or Civilian to whom the property was issued. Evan M. FitzGerald was a Quartermaster Officer and a platoon leader, support operations officer, and executive officer, assigned to the Regimental Support Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Irwin. He is now a practicing attorney and holds a J.D. from the University of Massachusetts School of Law, and an LL.M. in Transnational Law from Temple University. Commanders must conduct inventories for changes of command, changes of hand receipt holder, cyclic accountability, sensitive-item accountability, and when units conduct field exercises or deploy. Not conducting required inventories increases the likelihood of a finding of negligence due to poor accountability.

Both FLOs and SJAs need to understand the definitions of several different aspects of Army property, beginning with the types of responsibility. There are five types of responsibility used to determine who is responsible for the loss, destruction, or damage to government property: command, supervisory, direct, custodial, and personal. Direct responsibility obligates a person to ensure property they signed for is properly used, cared for, and kept safe. Personal responsibility obligates a person to exercise reasonable actions to properly care for and keep safe property issued or acquired for a person's exclusive use. Personal responsibility always accompanies the physical possession of property.

Record Details for PAM 735-5

Supervisory responsibility obligates supervisors to ensure that property issued to subordinates is properly used and cared for. Supervisory responsibility arises through an assignment to a supervisory position and is not contingent on signed receipts or responsibility statements. Understanding supply procedures, the CSDP, and the inventory process makes the legal review easy. The presence of some of the aforementioned supply documents will significantly aid the SJA in determining if the FLO's findings are legally sufficient. The briefing from the SJA to the FLO covers the following: Change of hand receipt holder inventories often occur at the platoon and squad levels. The incoming platoon leader or noncommissioned officer (NCO) inventories all property signed down to them from the commander. The incoming sub-hand receipt holder is responsible for ensuring 100 percent accountability of all items, including BII and COEI.

Cyclic inventories occur on a monthly basis when elected by the command in place of the annual 100 percent inventory. Ten percent of the total property on the primary hand receipt is inventoried each month (except for two months). This type of inventory should trigger the update of component hand receipts. NSNs are 13-digit numbers for materiel and are listed in technical manuals (TM) and often on property data plates. NSN nomenclature contains the basic noun that describes the property and identifies the make, model, size, and related information to distinguish NSN item types with the same generic nomenclature. A NIIN is the last nine digits of an NSN. The FLO's job is to determine if negligence is involved, who caused the property loss, and the amount of the loss," explained Daniel Haws, attorney-advisor, Administrative Law Division, Staff Judge Advocate Office. "If the FLO recommends liability against a Soldier, that individual has seven days to submit a rebuttal explaining why the liability is not appropriate based on the standards for FLIPL." A LIN is a six-character alphanumeric identification code for generic nomenclature and pertains to the listing line on which the generic nomenclature appears in bulletins and Army equipment authorization documents. LINs treat all NSN items possessing the functional capability expressed by the generic nomenclature collectively. For example, one LIN may cover all mechanics' tool kits, another heavy equipment transports, and a third M4 rifles. PBOs use LINs to identify equipment commanders will inventory during a cyclic inventory. Change of command inventories occur when the incoming commander inventories all of the property on the primary hand receipt. During this process, the commander inventories every major end item on the primary hand receipt. All items on component hand receipts, including basic issue items (BII) and components of the end item (COEI), also are inventoried.

Record Details for AR 735-5

Counseling sub-hand receipt holders in writing reduces the possibility of sub-hand receipt holder negligence. Before sub-hand receipt holders sign for property, the commander needs to provide them with a written counseling. The expectations of the commander should be clear and provide guidance about CSDP, inventory procedures and basic supply accountability. This written counseling statement serves as a training aid by passing along best practices to junior leaders. If the Soldier does not contest liability they may voluntarily sign a Department of Defense Form 362, or Statement of Charges/Cash Collection Voucher. While DD Form 362 is an admission of liability for the lost or damaged property and an agreement to pay for it, the Army uses FLIPLs in situations where responsibility for the loss is in question, or where the amount to be charged is in dispute. In addition to counseling sub-hand receipt holders, the unit commander should not sign primary hand receipts until all sub-hand receipt holders have signed their hand receipts. This ensures that all property is assigned and reduces the threats of liability and negligence. Follow your unit's inventory and supply procedures. The supply policies are there to prevent property from getting lost. UPDATED PUBLICATIONS. The supply section should have the most recent TMs and supply catalog publications on hand during the inventory. To find the most recent publications, the supply section looks at the primary hand receipt, obtains the relevant NSN, NIIN, or LIN for the property, and looks them up in GCSS-Army.

For more information about property accountability, the unit S-4, G-4, and PBO can provide assistance. Army Regulation 735-5, Policies and Procedures for Property Accountability; Army Regulation 710-2, Supply Policy Below the National Level; and Department of the Army Pamphlet 710-2-1, Using Unit Supply System (Manual Procedures), are also good resources. The FLO's resource is Department of the Army Pamphlet 735-5, Property Accountability Procedures and Financial Liability Officer's Guide. Property often has components, which require component hand receipts for accountability. Copies of these hand receipts are available from the unit's supply section, property book office (PBO), or the primary, sub, and end-user hand receipt holders. FLOs should ask for hand receipts from the unit's supply section before reaching out to other parties. TA-50 is commonly stolen from closets and from cars because it has a high resale value to local pawn shops, so be sure to store TA-50 in a secure location. Nonexpendable property includes all non-consumable major end items. Nonexpendable property has an ARC of "N."Before a FLIPL investigation begins, SJAs provide FLOs with a legal briefing. Responsibility and its differing types and applications must be presented in the briefing. The SJA also briefs the FLOs on the different types of property and how to identify the property on a hand receipt. SJAs should remember to brief FLOs on required inventories and how these inventories appear on component hand receipts. Durable property is usually not on a commander's primary hand receipt and is often a component of an end item. Durable property may be part of a sets, kits and outfits (SKO) listing or a part of the NSN system. An example of durable property is hand tools. Durable property has an ARC of "D."