Supply & Property

Almost every supply argument comes down to two words people use interchangeably and should not. Accountability lives on the books. Responsibility lives on a person. A property book officer is accountable for an item that a team leader is directly responsible for, and both of those facts are true at the same time.

Accountability

The obligation to keep accurate records of property: what the unit has, where it is, and what condition it is in. It is discharged by the property book officer through the property book and supporting documents.

Responsibility

A person's obligation for the proper custody, care, and safekeeping of property. It attaches to individuals, not to records, and it is the hinge on which financial liability turns.

Responsibility alone does not create a debt. A financial liability investigation still has to show that the responsible person was negligent or engaged in willful misconduct and that the conduct caused the loss. Responsibility only establishes that the person had a duty in the first place.

A FLIPL is an administrative investigation, not a punishment and not a criminal proceeding. Its job is to relieve accountability for property and to determine whether anyone should pay. Done properly it protects the government and the Soldier equally. Done sloppily it gets returned by the legal reviewer and starts over.

1. 1

   1. Discovery and initiation

   The individual who discovers the loss reports it. A DD 200 is initiated describing the item, the circumstances, and the value. Initiate promptly, because the suspense clock in AR 735-5 starts at discovery, not at appointment.

2. 2

   2. Appointment

   The appointing authority appoints a financial liability officer in writing. The FLO must be senior in grade to any potential respondent and must not be someone with an interest in the outcome.

3. 3

   3. Investigation

   The FLO gathers the facts: hand receipts, inventories, unit SOPs, sworn statements, and the physical circumstances. The FLO documents what was done to find the property and reconstructs the chain of custody.

4. 4

   4. Findings and recommendation

   The FLO writes findings of fact, then a recommendation. If the FLO recommends liability, the findings must support all four elements below, and the recommended amount must be computed from actual loss to the government.

5. 5

   5. Notification and rebuttal

   Before liability is approved, the respondent is notified in writing, given access to the file, told of the right to seek legal advice, and given the opportunity to submit a rebuttal. Skipping or shortcutting this step is the most common reason a FLIPL is overturned.

6. 6

   6. Legal review

   When financial liability is recommended, a judge advocate reviews the investigation for legal sufficiency before the approving authority acts.

7. 7

   7. Approval

   The approving authority approves, disapproves, or returns the investigation for more work. The approving authority is not bound by the FLO recommendation but must base any liability on the evidence in the file.

8. 8

   8. Collection, reconsideration, and appeal

   If liability is approved, the respondent is notified and collection begins. The respondent may request reconsideration on the basis of new evidence or legal error, and may appeal to the appeal authority if reconsideration is denied.

Appointing authority

The commander who appoints the financial liability officer in writing and sets the investigation in motion.

Financial liability officer

The investigating officer. Gathers evidence, makes findings of fact, and recommends whether financial liability should be assessed and in what amount.

Approving authority

The commander who acts on the completed investigation. Approves or disapproves financial liability after legal review and after the respondent has had the chance to rebut.

Respondent

The person against whom financial liability is recommended, who holds the rights to notice, review, legal advice, and rebuttal.

Preponderance of the evidence

The standard of proof for a FLIPL. More likely than not. It is a lower bar than the criminal standard, and it still requires evidence rather than assumption.

If you are appointed as a FLO, read AR 735-5 before you interview anyone. The regulation tells you what must be in the file, what the respondent is owed, and how to compute the amount. Most returned investigations fail on process, not on judgment.

Every item in the Army supply system carries an accounting requirements code, or ARC, in the federal catalog data. That single letter drives how the item is accounted for. Look it up rather than guessing from how expensive the item looks.

• Nonexpendable items are the ones that get inventoried, reconciled, and investigated. They are also the ones that generate a financial liability investigation when they go missing.
• Durable items do not appear on the property book, but the unit still tracks them on hand receipts and can still assess liability for their loss.
• Expendable items are consumed in use. The unit stops accounting for them after issue, which is not the same thing as nobody caring where they went.

The hand receipt chain exists so that at any moment one named person can be pointed to for every item the unit owns. Break the chain anywhere and the unit has property on the books that nobody has accepted responsibility for.

1. 1

   Property book officer

   The PBO carries formal accountability for the unit's nonexpendable property and maintains the property book record. The PBO is the only one who can add, drop, or adjust a property book record.

2. 2

   Primary hand receipt

   The commander signs a primary hand receipt from the PBO for all property book items in the unit. This is what a change-of-command inventory is really about: transferring that signature.

3. 3

   Sub-hand receipt

   The commander sub-hand receipts property to supply sergeants, platoon sergeants, section leaders, and other sub-hand receipt holders. Each one signs a DA 2062 accepting direct responsibility for what is listed.

4. 4

   User level

   The sub-hand receipt holder issues items down to the Soldier who uses them, again by DA 2062 for lasting issue, or by DA 3749 equipment receipt for temporary issue such as a weapon drawn from the arms room.

DA 2062

Hand Receipt / Annex Number. The workhorse form. It serves as a hand receipt, a sub-hand receipt, a component hand receipt, and a shortage annex depending on how it is filled out.

Change document

The entry that adjusts a hand receipt when a single item is added or dropped between full reprints, so the hand receipt stays current without regenerating the whole document.

DA 3749

Equipment Receipt. The card exchanged for a weapon or item drawn for temporary use. It is a temporary receipt, not a substitute for a hand receipt.

DA 1687

Notice of Delegation of Authority - Receipt for Supplies. Names by signature who may request or receipt for property on behalf of the unit, with effective and expiration dates.

Most end items come with a list of parts that belong to them. The technical manual for the item is the authority for what those parts are. Inventorying a truck means inventorying the pioneer tools, the fire extinguisher, and the tie-down straps, not just the truck.

COEI

Components of end item. Parts that make the end item functional and are listed in the operator technical manual. They stay with the item.

BII

Basic issue items. The tools, publications, and equipment issued with the end item so the operator can run and maintain it. They also stay with the item.

AAL

Additional authorization list. Items authorized with an end item but not required for it to operate. Confirm what is actually authorized before adding it to a hand receipt.

Shortage annex

A DA 2062 attached to the hand receipt that lists the components missing from an end item at the time of issue. It documents what the receiving individual is not accepting responsibility for.

1. 1

   Inventory against the TM

   Lay the item out and check the COEI and BII listings in the operator manual, item by item. Do not inventory against last year's annex, because that only copies forward last year's errors.

2. 2

   Record the shortages

   List every missing component on the shortage annex with the quantity short. The annex is signed and dated by the same people who sign the hand receipt.

3. 3

   Get them on order

   A shortage is only legitimate if it is on a valid requisition. Turn the annex into a request through the supply room and keep the document number with the annex.

4. 4

   Reconcile and close it out

   When a component arrives, receipt it, drop it off the annex, and post the change. An annex that never shrinks is a red flag on any inspection.

The Command Supply Discipline Program is not a supply sergeant program. AR 710-2 puts it on commanders at every level, from the company through the major command. Its purpose is simple: make compliance with supply policy a routine, inspected thing rather than something that gets discovered during a change of command.

• Commanders evaluate their subordinate elements against the CSDP checklists in AR 710-2 and record the results in writing.
• Findings are tracked to correction, not just noted. An open finding with no corrective action is worse than the original discrepancy.
• Higher headquarters sets the evaluation cycle and may add requirements. Check your brigade or battalion CSDP SOP for the local schedule and checklist set.
• The program covers requisitioning, receipt, storage, issue, hand receipt procedures, inventories, maintenance of supply records, turn-in, and disposition of excess.

An inventory is a physical count, in person, against a record. Reading a hand receipt out loud while somebody nods is not an inventory. The person conducting it signs for the result, so the count has to be one they are willing to defend.

• Sensitive items are counted by serial number every time. A quantity count is not a sensitive item inventory.
• The person who signed for the property does not certify their own sensitive item inventory. The appointed individual has to be disinterested.
• Local SOP and higher headquarters policy routinely require more frequent counts than the Army minimum. Follow the stricter standard.
• File the signed results. An inventory that cannot be produced on request did not happen as far as an inspector is concerned.

Property that changes hands without paperwork is property that will be missing at the next inventory. Whether the item is going to the supply support activity, to another company, or to the central issue facility, the transaction gets a document and a signature.

Document number

The fourteen-character identifier assigned to a supply transaction: the unit DODAAC, the Julian date, and a serial number. It is how a requisition is tracked, followed up on, and later proven.

DODAAC

Department of Defense activity address code. The six-character code that identifies the unit as a supply activity and forms the first part of every document number.

Lateral transfer

Moving property from one property book account to another without going through the supply system. It requires approval from the losing and gaining accountable officers.

1. 1

   Prepare the item

   Clean it, account for its components, and check it against the technical manual. A turn-in that gets rejected at the counter for missing BII costs the unit a day and does not stop the accountability clock.

2. 2

   Build the document

   Prepare the turn-in document with the correct nomenclature, national stock number, serial number, quantity, and condition code.

3. 3

   Turn it in with an authorized signer

   The person conducting the turn-in must be on the current DA 1687 for that activity.

4. 4

   Bring back the receipt

   Get the signed, dated copy and give it to the supply room the same day so the property book record is adjusted. Until the record drops the item, the unit still owns it.

The first question after a loss is not who pays. It is what happened and whether the loss can be relieved administratively. AR 735-5 provides several ways to clear property from the records, and only some of them create a debt.

Admission of liability

A voluntary acknowledgment by the responsible individual that they owe the government for the loss. It is what makes the fast route on a DD 362 available and what makes a FLIPL unnecessary in a straightforward case.

Fair wear and tear

Deterioration from normal, authorized use. It is not chargeable. Damage caused by misuse, neglect, or use outside the technical manual is a different matter.

A Soldier who ends up with a debt from a property loss and believes the collection would be unjust or create hardship can request remission or cancellation of the indebtedness under AR 600-4. That is a separate action from contesting the FLIPL itself and does not replace a timely rebuttal.

Preventive maintenance checks and services are what keep equipment on the road and off the deadline report. The operator does the checks against the technical manual, records what they find, and the record drives everything downstream: parts, work orders, and the commander's readiness picture.

DA 5988-E

Equipment Maintenance and Inspection Worksheet. Generated from the maintenance system, preprinted with the equipment, its open faults, parts on order, and services due. This is the form operators normally use.

DA 2404

Equipment Inspection and Maintenance Worksheet. The manual version, used when the system is unavailable or when a worksheet is needed for an inspection outside the normal cycle.

DA 5987-E

Motor Equipment Dispatch. Authorizes a named operator to use a specific vehicle for a stated purpose and period. Equipment does not leave the motor pool without one.

1. 1

   Draw the worksheet

   Pull the DA 5988-E for the equipment before operation and check what faults and services are already open on it.

2. 2

   Perform PMCS with the TM in hand

   Work the before, during, and after checks in the operator technical manual. The TM defines what a fault is; opinion does not.

3. 3

   Record faults with the right status symbol

   Write the fault clearly enough that a mechanic who was not there understands it, and assign the correct status symbol.

4. 4

   Turn it in

   Return the completed worksheet to the maintenance section the same day so faults are entered, parts are ordered, and the readiness report is accurate.

5. 5

   Track services

   Scheduled services come due by miles, hours, or calendar as the technical manual specifies, and the maintenance system produces the service schedule. Missing a service is a readiness failure, not a paperwork failure.

Before GCSS-Army, a unit ran its property book in one system, its requisitions in another, and its maintenance in a third, and reconciled between them by hand. GCSS-Army puts all of it on one record, which means a maintenance action, a requisition, and the money that pays for it are the same transaction seen from different angles.

• The property book lives in GCSS-Army, and hand receipts and sub-hand receipts are generated from it.
• Requisitions are created and tracked in the system, and the document number stays with the transaction from request through receipt.
• Maintenance work orders, the DA 5988-E worksheet, and the DA 5987-E dispatch are produced from the same equipment record.
• Financial data is tied to the transaction, so units can see the cost of what they order and repair.

Property book

The formal accountability record for nonexpendable property, maintained by the property book officer inside GCSS-Army.

Document number

The unit DODAAC plus Julian date plus serial number that identifies a transaction across the system.

Role-based access

Users are granted only the transactions their duty position requires. Getting the right roles assigned early is a real part of assuming a supply position.