Rocky Mountain Interagency Cache Policy
Transferring Supplies Between Incidents Or Agencies
General Policy
• The term “transfer” used herein refers to possession, not ownership. Ownership of property is retained
by the original supplier or by the incident’s agency if directly purchased.
• Transfer of supplies will be permitted only under the following conditions:
a. The logistics support system breaks down (verification by the Rocky Mountain Supply Management
Officer and the Rocky Mountain Coordinator is required), or
b. The material is needed to support initial attack action or response to imminent threats to life or
property, or
c. The collaborating agency administrators, or their representatives, mutually agree the movement is
critically necessary for success of suppression activities.
• Under no condition will a transfer be executed if it positions the Sending Unit at risk of failure to meet
its mission.
• All supplies determined to be surplus to the needs of the incident will be returned to the supplier or
supplying administrative unit.
• No incident will use the transfer process as a brokerage tool for supplies (e. g., one incident soliciting
and offering to supply another). That role is expressly defined as belonging to the Cache.
• Because of the complicated accounting steps, transfers should not occur between incidents served by
different Interagency Caches.
Specific Guidelines For Transfer of Cache Supplies/ Property
1. The Agency Administrators of the jurisdictional units, known herein as “Sending Unit” or “Receiving
Unit”, must approve the transfer.
2. The managing officer of the servicing Cache must receive a copy of the transfer approval letter, with
signatures of the approving Agency Administrators.
3. Receiving Unit (or its agent) will allocate the appropriate block of request numbers (“ S” number).
4. A Cache Demob Specialist, if available, will be assigned to facilitate and document the transfer of the
equipment or supplies. Sending Unit should order the specialist as soon as the decision for transfer is made
and approved. Receiving Unit’s Supply Unit Leader will verify receipt of transferred property.
5. Transfer will be documented using a specially formatted Transfer Resource Order (NRK Form 259- 17)
with the following standard parameters:
a. Incident Order Number, Job or Management Code, Incident Name and other pertinent header information for both Sending Unit and Receiving Unit incidents.
b. Resource Number (“ S” number) assigned by the Receiving Unit or its agent. c. NFES Number (if a NFES Cache item).
d. Accurate description.
e. Correct unit of issue.
f. Quantity.
g. Property numbers (or serial numbers) when applicable.
6. A copy of the transfer resource order will be immediately forwarded to the Receiving Unit.
7. Receiving Unit will validate the receipt of supplies against the transfer resource order received from
the Sending Unit. All discrepancies will be reconciled and documented immediately. It is recommended that
the Receiving Unit’s agent validates the receipt as the shipment is being loaded to shorten the timeframe.
8. A copy of the validated transfer resource order will be forwarded to the servicing Cache no later than
48 hours following the transfer. The Cache will use the validated order as input to its accounting system to
record the transfer.
9. All transfer resource orders from the Sending Unit must be received and processed by the Cache prior
to any returns from the Receiving Unit.
10. The Sending Unit will remain fully accountable for all costs of the transferred material until all
documentation is received and processed by the servicing Cache. Once the documentation is processed
and all queries are satisfied, cost responsibility will be shifted to the Receiving Unit.
11. Used Cache supplies/ equipment will never be transferred, but returned to the servicing Cache. This
ensures financial integrity with correct, accurate accounting of repair, refurbishment or replacement costs.
Furthermore, this assures supplies/ equipment are maintained in compliance to NFES quality and safety
standards.
12. Replacement orders associated with the Sending Unit must be processed prior to any transfers. Once
supplies have been transferred, replacements must be handled as prescribed in Chapters 23.3.4 and
23.3.5 of the National Interagency Mobilization Guide.
13. Incident closeout or transition will include a full inventory of all supply items and a full
documentation packet of all transfers to and from the incident. An Outstanding Items Report can be
provided to show the current obligation of the customer to the Cache.
Statements of Principle
Rocky Mountain Cache serves to assure a consistent, dependable, equitable, accountable flow of high quality goods and services to all emergency response teams. It is not in the business of controlling availability of materials.
Rocky Mountain Cache recognizes that expediency in moving supplies and equipment to incidents is a critical success factor. However, expediency must be balanced with efficiency, cost effectiveness, accountability and excellence. We need to keep the perspective of the narrowly focused needs between two incidents and the broader needs of the interagency, regional, national and international events.
The critical element of this policy is documentation. With complete, accurate and verifiable documentation, all parties involved will be in compliance with Congressional mandates for full accountability and with ICS protocols for resource ordering.
The superior issue is accountability: The incident, project or agency originally issued materials from the Cache remains accountable until those are returned to the cache.
A subsidiary issue is quality assurance: The Cache is not responsible for the assurance that supplies meet specifications unless they are issued directly from the Cache.
It is vital to understand that the owner of record for property issued by the Cache is the Cache itself. All issues and transfers are temporal in nature. The property must be returned to Cache upon termination of need, or otherwise accounted for.