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

Product Information

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.

Most of the evidence compiled should either support or refute a finding of negligence, which takes two forms: simple and gross. Simple negligence is briefly defined as the absence of due care, and gross negligence is an extreme departure from due care. The combination of the command supply discipline program (CSDP) and the use of the Global Combat Support System-Army (GCSS-Army) can help to reduce both types of negligence.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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. Inventory schedules must cover inventories of all property on every hand receipt and any property not currently on a hand receipt. The commander is usually responsible for at least two primary hand receipts: the unit property book and installation property book property. There may also be central issue facility, department of public works, or training and support center hand receipts. 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. 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.

Record Details for AR 735-5

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." 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.