H. B. 4365


(By Delegates Ryan and Kiss)
[Introduced February 4, 1994; referred to the
Committee on Government Organization then Finance.]




A BILL to amend and reenact section four, article three, chapter five-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the department of administration; purchasing division; and providing that rules adopted by the director of the purchasing division shall include the right of state agencies leasing motor vehicles to purchase the vehicles without the approval of the director.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That section four, article three, chapter five-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. PURCHASING DIVISION.

§ 5A - 3 - 4. Rules and regulations of director.

(a) The director shall adopt and amend rules and regulations to:

(1) Authorize a spending unit to purchase specified commodities directly and prescribe the manner in which such purchases shall be made;
(2) Authorize, in writing, a spending unit to purchase commodities in the open market for immediate delivery in emergencies, define such emergencies and prescribe the manner in which such purchases shall be made and reported to the director; and for the purposes mentioned in subdivision (1) and this subdivision (2), the head of any spending unit, or the financial governing board of any institution, may, with the approval of the director, make requisitions upon the auditor for a sum to be known as an advance allowance account, in no case to exceed five percent of the total of the appropriations for any such spending unit, and the auditor shall draw his warrant upon the treasurer for such accounts; and all such advance allowance accounts shall be accounted for by the head of the spending unit or institution once every thirty days or oftener if required by the state auditor or director;
(3) Prescribe the manner in which commodities shall be purchased, delivered, stored and distributed, including the right to purchase a motor vehicle that is being leased without the prior approval of the director;
(4) Prescribe the time for making requisitions and estimates of commodities, the future period which they are to cover, the form in which they shall be submitted and the manner of their authentication;
(5) Prescribe the manner of inspecting all deliveries of commodities, and making chemical and physical tests of samples submitted with bids and samples of deliveries to determine compliance with specifications;
(6) Prescribe the amount of deposit or bond to be submitted with a bid or contract and the amount of deposit or bond to be given for the faithful performance of a contract;
(7) Prescribe a system whereby the director shall be required, upon the payment by a vendor of an annual fee established by the director, to give notice to such vendor of all bid solicitations for commodities of the type with respect to which such vendor specified notice was to be given, but no such fee shall exceed the cost of giving the notice to such vendor, nor shall such fee exceed the sum of forty-five dollars per fiscal year, nor shall such fee be charged to persons seeking only reimbursement from a spending unit;
(8) Prescribe that each state contract entered into by the purchasing division shall contain provisions for liquidated damages, remedies, and/or provisions for the determination of the amount or amounts which the vendor shall owe as damages, in the event of default under such contract by such vendor; and
(9) Provide for such other matters as may be necessary to give effect to the foregoing rules and regulations and the provisions of this article.
(b) The director shall also adopt and amend rules and regulations to prescribe qualifications to be met by any person who, on and after the effective date of this section, is to be employed in the purchasing division as a state buyer. Such rules and regulations shall provide that no person shall be so employed as a state buyer unless such person at the time of employment either is (1) a graduate of an accredited college or university or (2) has at least four years' experience in purchasing for any unit of government or for any business, commercial or industrial enterprise. Those persons now serving as state buyers shall remain subject to the provisions of article six, chapter twenty-nine of this code, and those persons employed as state buyers on and after the effective date of this section shall be subject to the provisions of said article six.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to permit state agencies that lease motor vehicles to purchase the vehicles without having to obtain the approval of the Director of the Purchasing Division of the Department of Administration.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.