South Carolina § 1-11-56 - Program to manage leasing; procedures.

§ 1-11-56. Program to manage leasing; procedures.

(A) The Division of General Services of the Department of Administration, in an effort to ensure that funds authorized and appropriated for rent are used in the most efficient manner, is directed to develop a program to manage the leasing of all public and private space of a governmental body. The department must submit regulations for the implementation of this section to the General Assembly as provided in the Administrative Procedures Act, Chapter 23, Title 1. The department's regulations, upon General Assembly approval, shall include procedures for:

(1) assessing and evaluating agency needs, including the authority to require agency justification for any request to lease public or private space;

(2) establishing standards for the quality and quantity of space to be leased by a requesting agency;

(3) devising and requiring the use of a standard lease form (approved by the Attorney General) with provisions which assert and protect the state's prerogatives including, but not limited to, a right of cancellation in the event of:

(a) a nonappropriation for the renting agency;

(b) a dissolution of the agency; and

(c) the availability of public space in substitution for private space being leased by the agency;

(4) rejecting an agency's request for additional space or space at a specific location, or both;

(5) directing agencies to be located in public space, when available, before private space can be leased;

(6) requiring the agency to submit a multiyear financial plan for review by the department with copies sent to Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee, before any new lease for space is entered into; and

(7) requiring prior review by the Joint Bond Review Committee and the requirement of State Fiscal Accountability Authority approval before the adoption of any new or renewal lease that commits more than two hundred thousand dollars annually in rental or lease payments or more than one million dollars in such payments in a five-year period.

(B) Leases or rental agreements involving amounts below the thresholds provided in subsection (A)(7) may be executed by the Department of Administration without this prior review by the Joint Bond Review Committee and approval by the State Fiscal Accountability Authority.

(C) The threshold requirements requiring review by the Joint Bond Review Committee and approval by the State Fiscal Accountability Authority as contained in subsection (A)(7) also apply to leases or rental agreements with nonstate entities whether or not the state or its agencies or departments is the lessee or lessor.

HISTORY: 1997 Act No. 153, SECTION 2; 2014 Act No. 121 (S.22), Pt V, SECTION 7.B, eff July 1, 2015.

Effect of Amendment

2014 Act No. 121, SECTION 7.B, added subsection designator (A); in subsection (A), substituted "Division of General Services of the Department of Administration" for "State Budget and Control Board", substituted "a governmental body" for "state agencies", and added the second sentence relating to regulations; in subsection (A)(6), substituted "department" for "board's budget office", and deleted text relating to prior review by the Joint Bond Review Committee; rewrote subsection (A)(7); and added subsections (B) and (C).