Alabama § 29-2-41 - Expenses for Members; Contracts for Personal or Professional Services; Letter of Intent to Contract; Hearing; Organization and Meetings.

§ 29-2-41. Expenses for Members; Contracts for Personal or Professional Services; Letter of Intent to Contract; Hearing; Organization and Meetings.

(a) Each member of the committee shall be entitled to regular legislative compensation, per diem, and travel expenses for each day he or she attends a meeting of the committee, which shall be paid out of the funds appropriated to the use of the Legislature, on warrants drawn on the Comptroller upon requisition signed by the committee’s chair. Members shall not receive additional compensation or per diem when the Legislature is in session. The Department of Examiners of Public Accounts shall furnish assistance and any relevant information to the committee.

(b)(1) The committee shall have the responsibility of reviewing contracts for personal or professional services with private entities or individuals to be paid out of appropriated funds, federal or state, on a state warrant issued as recompense for those services.

(2) Each state department entering into a contract to be paid out of appropriated funds, federal or state, on a state warrant which is notified by the committee shall submit to the committee any proposed contract for personal or professional services. Each contract shall be accompanied by an itemization of the total cost estimate of the contract.

(c) A department, in lieu of the proposed contract, may submit to the committee a letter of intent to contract. A letter of intent to contract shall indicate the contracting parties, the services to be performed, an itemization of the total cost estimate of the contract, and such other information as the department may deem pertinent to the committee review of the contract. If a department elects to submit a letter of intent to contract in lieu of a proposed contract, the department shall be required to submit to the committee for its information the contract described in the letter of intent upon the execution of the contract.

(d) The committee shall hold a hearing to review and comment where necessary on any contract or letter of intent to contract, including a recommendation that the Governor not sign a contract, within a reasonable time not to exceed 45 days after a department has submitted the contract or letter of intent to contract to the committee. If the committee fails to hold a hearing to review a contract or letter of intent to contract within the 45-day time period, the contract shall be deemed to have been reviewed in compliance with this section. The committee may hold a contract considered at a meeting for up to 45 days following the meeting to review and comment on the contract.

(e) Any contract made by the state or any of its agencies or departments in violation of this section and without prior review by the committee of either the contract or the letter of intent to contract shall be void ab initio.

(f) The committee may issue subpoenas for any witnesses and require the production of any documents or contracts the committee deems necessary to examine in order to conduct its duties.

(g) The committee shall organize itself at the first meeting following a new quadrennium and elect from among its membership a chair and a vice chair. Any committee member reelected to a new quadrennium shall continue to serve on the committee until such time the committee reorganizes itself.

(h) The committee shall hold regular meetings at least once each month, the regular meetings to be held during the first week of each month.