(a) The Legislature finds that taxpayers should be able to easily access the details of how the state is spending their tax dollars to build and repair state and public roads. The taxpayers should also be able to easily access and compare the budgeted moneys and the performance results that are achieved for those expenditures. It is the intent of the Legislature, therefore, to direct the Auditor to create and maintain a searchable website detailing where, how much, and from what source the taxpayer moneys in state government are expended for payment to third party vendors for state roads.

(b) No later than July 1, 2019, the Auditor shall develop and make publicly available a searchable website containing, at a minimum, the following information for a given fiscal year, and the three immediately preceding fiscal years, to the extent that the commissioner has the ability to provide the information to the Auditor:

(1) The project number or name for each state road in which moneys have been expended to pay venders to build, repair or maintain a state road;

(2) The county location for each such project;

(3) The funding source for a given funding action or expenditure to pay vendors;

(4) The budget program or activity related to a given funding action or expenditure;

(5) The name and the address, principal location or residence of the vendors receiving payment from a given funding action or expenditure; and

(6) Additional information as to the funding action or expenditure the Auditor considers valuable for the public.

(1) “Auditor” means the State Auditor of West Virginia, or his or her designee appointed to perform the service;

(2) “Funding action or expenditure” includes details on the type of spending to venders, including, but not limited to, grants, contracts, and any expenditure from the state road fund, federal funds, special revenue funds, including any civil contingency or similar fund. Where possible, a hyperlink to the actual grants or contracts shall be provided;

(3) “Funding source” means the state account from which the funding action or expenditure is appropriated;

(4) “Vendor” means any person or entity that is authorized by the State of West Virginia to supply the Division of Highways with commodities or services;

(5) “Searchable website” means a website that allows the public at no cost to search and aggregate information regarding the state’s budget and spending for state roads.

(d) The searchable website shall be updated periodically as new data becomes available and is submitted by the commissioner to the Auditor. The commissioner shall provide to the Auditor, in a format specified by the Auditor, all the data that is required to be included in the searchable website no later than 30 days after the data becomes available to the agency. The Auditor shall provide guidance and specifications to the commissioner to promote compliance with this section. The commissioner and the Auditor shall communicate and cooperate to develop methodologies for the efficient transfer of the data, including, but not limited to, methodologies to convert noncompatible electronic formats of data into data formats that can be reasonably converted and transferred to the website.

(e) The Auditor and the commissioner shall each report to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance and the Legislative Oversight Commission on Department of Transportation Accountability as to the status of the website and shall advise the Committee and the Commission of any issues related to the transfer and receipt of the information from the commissioner to the Auditor in a timely manner as required in this section. The reports shall be submitted at the end of each quarter for the 2019-2020 fiscal year; and annually thereafter, beginning December 1, 2020, and on December 1 of each year thereafter, until the Joint Committee finds that the annual reports are no longer required.”