Your Responsibilities as an Asset Owner

Introduction

JAC purchases pieces of equipment, scientific instruments, computers etc necessary to carry out the work of the organisation. JAC currently has listed about 450 individual items which cost over $25m to purchase, this is excluding the cost of the JAC Office and telescope buildings. These items have all been purchased from taxpayers money.

As employees of JAC’s we all have an obligation to ensure that this equipment is accounted for correctly. We need to ensure we know where all the items are, what they are being used for and to take necessary action when the items become obsolete or redundant. To aid in this Accounts maintains two lists of these items:

• "portable & attractive" (P&A) assets; these are pieces of equipment costing less than $4500 but over $450 and might possibly be attractive to potential thieves, examples being PCs, printers, display equipment; these pieces of equipment are identified by red stickers which has a number beginning with "PA";
• "fixed assets" (FA); these are pieces of equipment which cost over $4500 to purchase, these items collectively form the basis of the "value" of JAC; these pieces of equipment are identified by blue stickers.

All these items are assets of JAC.

What you need to do

Purchasing New Assets

When purchasing an item that could possibly be an asset, you need to consider if it would come under the P&A or FA heading. If the item is a FA, a special purchase order needs to be used on the finance system. Accounts will the stamp a purchase order if the item being bought could possibly be a P&A or as yet unidentified FA. You need to make a decision, with the help of Accounts, on whether the item should be included as an asset or not (also see Purchasing an Asset)

If the item is identified as an asset Accounts will complete the necessary paperwork for you to sign to take on "ownership" of the asset if it will be in your care and ask you to attach an identifying sticker to the item.

Asset Owners

Asset owners are responsible for managing the asset, they should know where every item is under their ownership, what use it is being put to and to ensure that when the item is no longer used or becomes unusable it is disposed of. You need to inform Accounts when

• you purchase an asset;
• you move an asset;
• transfer the asset to another owner;
• the asset needs to be disposed of (also see Disposal Procedure);
• if the asset ceases to be used.

Asset Audit

Accounts are obliged to "audit" or to check on all assets annually. As an asset owner, you may be asked to confirm the existence of the asset and to show the asset to the auditing officer. We ask for your help to do the audit, if may appear an administrative burden, but we do need to confirm we still have the items on our list.

What you need to do if you have use of an Asset

Though you may not be the owner of an asset you may have use of it; most computer and lab equipment is under the collective ownership of the Computing and Engineering and Technical Services Group. In cases, you are responsible as if you were the asset owner.