Before disposing of capital assets, units must communicate plans for their disposal to Capital Assets by posting the item(s) for sale in the Cornell Asset Transfer System (CATS). According to University Policy 3.9, Capital Assets, items recommended for sale must be offered to the university community through CATS.
The request must include the following information about the discarded asset:
- The bar code number or the item number
- A brief description of item, including its condition and the quantity of the item(s)
- The estimated current market value
- Calculation of how the market value was determined
- The reason for disposal
- The recommended method of removal (e.g., sale, transfer or donation to another organization, trash, or use for parts)
All requests for asset disposal that are posted to CATS are routed to Capital Assets, who either will approve the request, or make the unit aware of any disposal limitations.
Items for sale will remain on the CATS surplus list for one month. In general, items will be sold to the highest bidder. However, there may be occasions when a unit's bid is given preference, even if the bid is lower.
Preferences for equal bids should be given as follows:
- Other university units, with preference given to grants and contracts
- Employees, for personal use
- Local school districts or charitable organizations
- General public
Notes:
- Units are responsible for updating and removing item(s) from CATS on a timely basis.
- Contract college units that have surplus capital assets are required to offer to sell the surplus item(s) ONLY to contract college units for three weeks from the original posting date. After that date, the surplus item(s) are made available to any interested party.
- For additional information and details on government and corporation-funded assets, gifts-in-kind, and the detailed procedures on the actual disposal (i.e., removing tags, and moving items to temporary storage), please refer to the "Before Disposing of Capital Assets" and "Disposing of Capital Assets" segments of the University Policy 3.9, Capital Assets.
- Once the asset is disposed of, units are required to initiate the Asset Retirement Global e-doc in KFS to remove the asset from the inventory system.
