Department of Administrative Services

The Department of Administrative Services was consolidated along with the Departments of Human Resource Management and Technology Services into the new Department of Government Operations in 2021 (Laws of Utah, 2021, Chapter 344).

The department supervised those agencies that provide such centralized services as accounting, archiving and managing of records, data processing, facilities management (which includes construction and remodeling projects authorized by the legislature), mailing, motor pool, printing, fuel dispensing, purchasing, and telecommunications to other state agencies.

An executive director appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate oversees the department. A User Advisory Committee composed of agency representatives advises the executive director. Each division is under the immediate supervision and control of a division director.

The department was organized by consolidating the Department of Finance (Agency #390), the Department of Systems Planning and Computing, the Office of Personnel Management (#789), and the Building Board (#75). When the department began operation on 1 July 1981 it consisted of seven divisions-- Finance (#388), Central Services (#241), Data Processing (#305), Facilities Construction and Management (#375), Archives and Records Services (#11), Purchasing (#753), and Personnel Management (#789). The State Building Board and the State Building Ownership Authority were also placed within the DAS umbrella for administrative support and staff services.

The newly organized department also assumed direct administrative responsibility for three agencies that had previously been administered by the former Department of Finance--the State Insurance Fund (#899), the State Agency for Surplus Property (#1107), and the Risk Manager (#846), who manages the State Risk Management Fund. The State Insurance Fund was renamed the Workers' Compensation Fund in 1986 and became the Department of Workers' Compensation Fund (#1278) in 1988. The State Agency for Surplus Property became the Division of Surplus Property in 1984. The Risk Manager and the Risk Management Fund are commonly referred to as the "Office" of Risk Management and have occasionally been called the "Division" of Risk Management.

The Office of Administrative Rules (#29), which was added to the Division of Archives in September 1984, became a subagency of the department in 1985 and was elevated to division status in 1987. Telephone Services, formerly part of Central Services, became the Division of Telecommunications (#1153) in 1986. The Crime Victims' Reparations Office (#1601) was created in 1986 and was transferred to the Governor's Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (#202) on July 1, 1989. The Division of Personnel Management was separated from the department in 1988, becoming the Department of Human Resource Management (#789). The Division of Fuel Dispensing Services was created in 1991.