Acquiring Federal Personal Property through Exchange/Sale

Federal agencies should report property through the Personal Property Management System (PPMS) to replace a piece of personal property. Items marked for exchange/sale via PPMS will be available for 2-day federal screening. If the property is not selected by another agency, the items are moved to Sales. You can use the sales proceeds to pay for the purchase of replacement property. Items prohibited for exchange/sale are identified in the Federal Management Regulation, FMR 102-39.

The exchange/sale authority is appropriate when:

• The property exchanged or sold is similar to the property acquired;
• The agency has an ongoing need for that type of property;
• The property involved was not acquired for the principal purpose of exchange or sale;
• The exchange allowance or sales proceeds offsets the cost of the replacement property only, not services;
• An exchange/sale would provide the greater return for the federal government (taking into account administrative and overhead costs); and
• The transaction (except books and periodicals) is documented with the following information:
  • The FSC Group of the items exchanged or sold, and the items acquired;
  • The number of items exchanged or sold, and the number of items acquired;
  • The acquisition cost and exchange allowance or net sales proceeds of the items exchanged or sold, and the acquisition cost of the items acquired;
  • The date of the transaction(s);
  • The parties involved; and
  • A statement that the transactions comply with the requirements of Part 102-39.

The exchange/sale authority is not appropriate when:

• The exchange allowance or estimated sales proceeds would be unreasonably low;
• The items are not approved for exchange/sale (see Federal Management Regulation, Part 102-39—Replacement of Personal Property Pursuant to the Exchange/Sale Authority); and 
• The transaction would violate any other applicable statute or regulation.

Agencies may use the exchange/sale authority to acquire personal property even if the acquisition is under a services contract, as long as the property acquired under the services contract is similar to the property exchanged or sold.

The proper exchange of property occurs when the supplier (a government agency, commercial or private organization, or individual) delivers the new property, and removes the property being replaced from either the receiving organizational unit or another unit within the same federal agency.

Note: Forward any net proceeds from the eventual sale to Miscellaneous Receipts Account at the United States Treasury. Savings do not go into agency coffers.

Personal Property Management System videos can be viewed here.

Note: These videos are hosted by a nongovernment website.