Senate Bill No. 558
(By Senators Love, Kessler, Hunter, Boley, Fanning,
Wells, Facemyer, Helmick, Green, Stollings, Barnes, Unger and
Foster)
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[Introduced February 4, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §12-3A-2 and §12-3A-3 of the Code of
West Virginia, 1931, as amended; and to amend said code by
adding thereto a new section, designated §12-3A-7, all
relating to electronic commerce; granting the Auditor and
Treasurer the discretion to require certain electronic filing
with waivers and exceptions; and authorizing the use of
electronic commerce in the sale or disposal of property.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §12-3A-2 and §12-3A-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that said code be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §12-3A-7, all to read
as follows:
ARTICLE 3A. FINANCIAL ELECTRONIC COMMERCE.
§12-3A-2. Definitions.
(a) "Document" means any authentication, certificate, claim, form, invoice, record, report, requisition, security, statement or
other similar item that may be in a tangible or electronic form.
(a) (b) "Electronic" means electrical, digital, magnetic,
wireless, optical, electromagnetic, biometric, or any other
technology that is similar to these technologies.
(b) (c) "Electronic commerce" means using electronic
techniques for accomplishing business transactions, including
electronic mail or messaging, electronic bulletin board, Internet
technology, electronic funds transfers, electronic data interchange
(EDI) techniques, and any other related electronic technologies.
(c) (d) "Security procedure" means a methodology or procedure
for the purpose of:
(1) Preventing access by unauthorized parties;
(2) Verifying that an electronic record or electronic
signature is that of a specific party or created by a specific
electronic point of origin; or
(3) Detecting error or alteration in the communication,
content, or storage of an electronic record since a specific point
in time.
(d) (e) "WEB commerce" means electronic commerce on the
Internet.
§12-3A-3. Financial electronic commerce.
(a) The State Auditor and the State Treasurer shall implement
electronic commerce capabilities for each of their offices to
facilitate the performance of their duties under this code. The State Treasurer shall competitively bid the selection of vendors
needed to provide the necessary banking, investment and related
goods and services, and the provisions of article one-b, chapter
five, and articles three and seven, chapter five-a of this code
shall not apply, unless requested by the State Auditor or State
Treasurer.
(b) A record, an authentication, a document or a signature
received, issued or used by the Auditor or the Treasurer shall be
considered an original and may not be denied legal effect on the
ground that it is in electronic form. The Auditor and Treasurer
may accept a document for the receipt or disbursements of moneys
requiring certification, notarization or verification in an
electronic format without the certification, notarization or
verification.
(c) The Auditor or Treasurer may, in his or her discretion,
require documents filed with or submitted to his or her respective
office be filed or submitted in a prescribed electronic format.
(d) The Auditor or Treasurer may, in his or her discretion,
may waive:
(1) Any requirements for a document filed or submitted in an
electronic format; or
(2) Any requirements for the certification, notarization or
verification of a document filed or submitted in an electronic
format.
(e) The head of each spending unit is responsible for adopting and implementing security procedures to ensure adequate integrity,
security, confidentiality, and auditability of the business
transactions of his or her spending unit when utilizing electronic
commerce.
§12-3A-7. Method of sale or disposal of property.
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision in this code to the
contrary, the Treasurer, or any other state spending unit that has
the authority to sell or dispose of property in its possession, may
do so by using electronic commerce.
(b) The sale of property by the Treasurer, or other state
spending unit, by using electronic commerce will, for all purposes,
be deemed a sale of property within the State of West Virginia.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to further permit the use of
electronic commerce. The Auditor and Treasurer are granted the
discretion to require electronic filing of documents and to waive
any requirements in such filing and the certification, notarization
or verification of those documents. The bill also defines the term
"document" and permits the sale or disposal of property by
electronic commerce.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
§12-3A-7 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.