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ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 700
(Senators Love, Dempsey, Sharpe and Minear, original sponsors)
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[Passed March 13, 2004; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to
amend the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §5A-7-4a, relating to
payments for telecommunications services; providing
legislative findings; creating a special revenue account;
requiring certain duties of the information services and
communications division; requiring state spending units budget
for telecommunications services and submit payment or transfer
funds to pay for services; authorizing secretary of department
of administration to transfer funds to pay for
telecommunications services and certain fees and penalties
from funds supporting the administration of a spending unit;
providing for payment and determination of contested
telecommunications charges; requiring payment of
telecommunications services within ninety days of receipt of
invoice; providing for discontinuance of telecommunications
services; authorizing fees for administration of section; and
authorizing legislative and emergency rules.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §5A-7-4a, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 7. INFORMATION SERVICES AND COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION.
§5A-7-4a. Payment of legitimate uncontested invoices for
telecommunications services; procedures and powers of
the information and communications division and
secretary of administration.
(a) The Legislature finds that it is in the best interest of
the state, its spending units and those vendors supplying
telecommunications services to the state and its spending units
that any properly registered and qualified vendor supplying
telecommunications services to two or more spending units under a
shared account is entitled to prompt payment upon presentation of
a legitimate uncontested invoice for telecommunications services to
the division, as provided in the following subsections.
(b) To facilitate the administration and payment of
telecommunications services, there is hereby created in the state
treasury a special revenue account to be known as the
"Telecommunications Services Payment and Reserve Fund". All moneys
transferred from state spending units pursuant to the requirements
of this section shall be deposited in the account. Expenditures
from the fund shall be made by the director
for the exclusive
purposes set forth in this section: Provided, That no more than one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars or the actual amount collected
pursuant to subsection (i) of this section in any fiscal year,
whichever is less, may be expended from the fund in any fiscal year to defray the costs of administration of this section.
(c) Upon receipt of any telecommunications charges from a
properly registered and qualified vendor, the director shall fully
apportion telecommunications charges among spending units based on
the spending unit's service and usage, as determined by the
director. The director shall send each spending unit a statement
of the spending unit's proportionate share of any
telecommunications charges within thirty days of receipt by the
division of the invoice detailing the telecommunications charges.
The statement is to provide a date of no more than thirty calendar
days from the date the division sends the statement by which the
spending unit shall submit payment or transfer to the
telecommunications services payment and reserve fund all funds
necessary to pay for the spending unit's charges in full:
Provided, That the statement sent in last month of the fiscal year
shall provide that the transfer shall be made by the thirty-first
day of July. If feasible for the spending unit, the preferable
method of payment is by intergovernmental transfer.
(d) All spending units shall budget for telecommunications
service expenses. Prior to the date provided in each statement
sent to a spending unit pursuant to subsection (c) of this section,
each spending unit shall pay or transfer the statement amount to
the telecommunications services payment and reserve fund.
(e) If a spending unit fails to pay or transfer funds by the
date specified in the statement sent pursuant to subsection (c) of
this section, the secretary of the department of administration
shall transfer to the telecommunications services payment and
reserve fund the statement amount plus an additional penalty in the amount of three percent of the statement amount from any funds
supporting the administration of that spending unit: Provided,
That the secretary shall complete all such transfers by the thirty-
first day of July of each fiscal year. Upon exercising a transfer
under the authority of this subsection, the director shall provide
a notification to the spending unit, including, but not limited to,
the date, time, total amount of the transfer, statement amount and
penalty amount. If a participating spending unit does not maintain
funds in the state treasury, the secretary may transfer funds by
wire from any depository outside the state treasury. A
participating spending unit maintaining funds in depositories
outside the state treasury shall furnish the secretary access to
those funds for the exclusive purposes of this section.
(f) If a spending unit contests any portion of its statement,
it shall nonetheless remit payment for the entire statement amount
and notify the division in writing within thirty days of statement
receipt by the spending unit. The secretary shall consider any
contested apportionments of charges and provide a final
determination on the apportionment of legitimate charges.
Corrections or adjustments to apportionments may be effected on
future transfer payments: Provided, That legitimate vendor charges
are to be fully apportioned. If the basis of the contest is vendor
error, overcharge, service failure, failure to terminate services
as required by the division, or other failure of or error in vendor
performance, the director shall withhold the contested amount from
current or future vendor payments, pending resolution by the
secretary, and the director shall bring the contested matter to the
attention of the vendor. The director and the vendor shall attempt to resolve the matter in good faith. Within ninety days of the
receipt of the vendor's invoice or a time period mutually agreed to
by the vendor and secretary, the secretary shall make the final
decision as to the legitimacy of the contested amount and determine
if payment is warranted. If the final decision of the secretary is
to refuse to pay any amount, the vendor may proceed in accordance
with the provisions of article two, chapter fourteen of this code.
(g) The director shall provide for full payment of legitimate,
uncontested telecommunications charges within ninety days of
receipt of an invoice detailing the telecommunications charges by
the division. Payment for the charges shall be made by the
director from the telecommunications services payment and reserve
fund.
(h) The director may direct the discontinuance of
telecommunications services to any spending unit that fails to
comply with the provisions of this section and the vendor supplying
telecommunication services shall comply with the written direction
of the director on discontinuance of services.
(i) To help defray the additional cost of administering this
section, the director may assess a proportional fee of up to one
hundred fifty thousand dollars in aggregate per fiscal year to the
participating spending units based on each spending unit's portion
of service and usage. This fee is to be included in the statement
sent to spending units pursuant to subsection (c) of this section
and transferred to the telecommunications service payment and
reserve fund by the date specified in the statement for the
transfer of payment.
(j) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, for purposes of this section, an invoice is considered
received by the division on the date on which the invoice is marked
as received by the division, or three business days after the date
of the postmark made by the United States postal service as
evidenced on the envelope in which the invoice is mailed, whichever
is earlier: Provided, That if an invoice is received by the
division prior to the date on which the telecommunications services
covered by the invoice are delivered or fully performed, for
purposes of determining the ninety-day time period for payment in
subsection (g) of this section, the invoice is considered received
on the date on which the telecommunications services covered by the
invoice were delivered or fully performed.
(k) For purposes of this section, "telecommunications service"
means and includes not only telephone service regulated under
chapter twenty-four of this code or under federal law, but also may
include, at the discretion of the secretary of administration,
wireless service, voice over internet protocol service, internet
service and any other service or equipment used for the electronic
transmission of voice or data.
(l)
The director may propose rules for legislative approval in
accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-
nine-a of this code to effectuate the purposes of this section.
The initial rule filed by the division pursuant to this subsection
shall be filed as an emergency rule.
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