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University of Regina Policy

Management of Assets

Category:Operations
Number:OPS-010-045
Audience:All University employees
Issued:April 28, 1998
Revised:February 14, 2024
Owner(s):AVP (Finance)
Approved by:VP (Administration)
Contact:Director, Financial Reporting - 306-585-4135

Introduction

The University is required by law to follow the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) Handbook when preparing financial statements for the University of Regina. These rules state that the University must capitalize and amortize its capital assets, must periodically verify the existence of assets, and must remove assets from its books when they are no longer owned by the University.

The University receives funding from a variety of sources such as the Provincial Government, Federal Government, Research Granting Agencies, contracts with government and private industry, tuition fees, sales of products and services, etc.  The University is accountable to the funding providers and the general public in ensuring that the funds at its disposal are used for the purposes for which they were intended.

This policy provides a coordinated approach for management of the University’s assets.

Policy

Any asset purchased by the University remains the property of the University until the University disposes of it in accordance with policy.  When University funds are used to purchase an asset, the asset belongs to the University, including assets purchased from research accounts, general operating accounts, accountable professional expense accounts, trust accounts, capital accounts or any other source of University funds, unless purchased with funds where the contract states the assets are owned by the funding agency.

For the proper stewardship and recording of its assets, the University maintains capital asset subledgers which list the assets, location and value.

Employees shall advise Financial Services of the purchase of assets costing more than, or the donation of assets valued greater than, the following amounts:

Disposal of any asset, whether salvage or surplus, shall be done through Supply Management Services, with the exception of building material assets (e.g. materials used for construction or renovation projects) which will be managed by Facilities Management. 

In some cases, assets may be disposed through donation to other charitable organizations.  Supply Management Services will enter into written agreements with these organizations to ensure donated assets are used only to support their charitable programs and that no private or personal gain is obtained from the donation.

All computer assets shall be properly decommissioned prior to disposal to protect the University from violation of software licensing agreements or leakages of confidential or sensitive University data (see Salvage/Surplus Procedure).

Roles and Responsibilities

Deans, Directors (Academic), AVPs, or their out-of-scope designates

  • appoint an asset administrator to manage assets in their area or areas
  • provide up-to-date asset administrator contact information to Financial Services and Supply Management Services
  • authorize all assets sent to Supply Management Services by their faculty or administrative unit for disposal and verify that description of asset condition is correct
  • review and authorize the asset count missing assets list for disposal, and investigate methods of ensuring fewer assets will go missing for the next asset count 

Asset Administrators and University Employees (for direct-use computer assets)

  • inform Financial Services of the following asset changes

-       capital assets purchased (submit the Capital Asset Update Form)

-       donated assets received, including the appraised values (see University Gift Acceptance)

-       asset location changes (submit the Capital Asset Update Form)

-       assets being moved off campus (submit the Declaration Regarding Use of University Property Off Campus form)

  • cooperate with Financial Services during the periodic counts to help locate assets, including investigating and explaining differences between the periodic counts and the assets recorded in the capital asset subledger in a timely manner
  • ensure proper approval is obtained from the Vice-President (Research) for any research assets moving with a researcher to a different University
  • ensure employees return all university-owned assets upon leaving the employ of the University (see exception in next point for direct-use computer assets)
  • use the following criteria to determine if assets should be disposed:

-       Excess – Capital assets that are no longer needed (in excess of the department’s requirements) but are still serviceable or useable; (NOTE: if a direct-use computer asset is considered excess, the asset user can apply to Supply Management Services to purchase the asset for Fair Market Value, after obtaining approval from their Dean, Director (Academic), AVP, or out-of-scope designate;

-       Obsolete – Capital assets that no longer meet department specifications or requirement but are still serviceable or useable;

-       Worn – Capital assets that may still be operable but require excessive maintenance or repair (cost, labour) to remain in an operable condition;

-       Damaged or Destroyed – Capital assets that are not operable due to damage or accident and would require excessive repair (cost, labour) to return the asset to serviceable condition;

-       Scrap – Capital assets that no longer function, are unserviceable and have no market value except for their basic material content;

-       Lost or Stolen – Capital assets that are assigned to or acquired by a department but have been lost or stolen and deemed unrecoverable; or

-       Part of an asset replacement program – for example, Evergreen Program, computer lab upgrade, complete space renovation where new furniture is needed to fit new space.

  • inform Supply Management Services of any assets deemed salvage or surplus, regardless of condition (see Salvage/Surplus Procedure)
  • ensure non-evergreen computer assets, including APEA and any other electronic devices that have data storage capability, are properly decommissioned when scrapped or sold (see Salvage/Surplus Procedure)

Financial Services

  • maintain the capital asset subledger, including changes in asset existence, location or valuation
  • ensure assets are capitalized with the proper useful lives and amortization start dates
  • ensure appropriate disclosure of assets in the University’s financial statements
  • maintain a schedule for periodic counts of the University’s capital assets
  • work with departments to schedule and conduct periodic counts
  • obtain authorization from Deans, Directors (Academic), AVPs or their out-of-scope designate of the asset count missing asset list for their area or areas
  • provide authorized asset count missing asset lists to Supply Management Services for disposal
  • annually, prepare a list of disposed/written-off assets information for the Vice-President (Administration)

Supply Management Services

  • obtain authorization from Deans, Directors (Academic), AVP’s or their out-of-scope designate that all assets under their responsibility listed on the SMS salvage list should in fact be disposed and that the asset condition description is correct
  • provide Fair Market Value for sales of direct-use computer assets after employee has returned approved University Data Sanitization – Personal Sale of Computer(s) Form
  • record assets authorized for disposal and make arrangements for their disposal
  • ensure agreements are in place with charitable organizations accepting donations of the University’s surplus assets
  • inform Financial Services of all assets disposed
  • add all assets from authorized asset count missing asset lists to disposal list

Information Services

  • properly decommission scrapped computer assets and any other electronic devices that have data storage capability by removing and shredding hard drives and media storage components, recycling the carcass, and informing SMS of barcodes of scrapped computers and any other electronic devices
  • properly decommission sold computer assets and any other electronic devices that have data storage capability by cleaning off University-owned software and data

Facilities Management

  • inform Financial Services of individual assets valued over the policy thresholds purchased through a contractor during construction or renovation projects
  • will manage all salvage building material assets including:
    • a) Waste generated by construction or facilities maintenance or renewal activities, such as scrap, damaged or spoiled materials, or temporary and expendable construction materials.
    • b) Waste generated from the process of intentional dismantling all or portions of a building.
    • This will include oversight and accounting for recycling of steel, mixed metals, and precious metals (e.g. copper, brass) in accordance with contractual agreements and sustainability objectives
    • inform Supply Management Services of assets disposed during construction or renovation projects

Vice-President (Administration)

  • annually review a list of disposed/written-off assets provided by Financial Services
  • inform the Board of any material policy violations

Consequences for Noncompliance

Asset count missing asset lists will be sent to the Dean, Director (Academic), AVP, or their designate for review and action. Employees who misuse or improperly care for University assets may be subject to disciplinary action. 

If assets are not managed in accordance with this policy, the University could not properly capitalize and amortize its capital assets or verify the continued existence of its assets and may be denied a clean audit opinion by the Office of the Provincial Auditor, which in turn would jeopardize the provincial operating grant.

Processes

Related Information