Senate Bill 2995

AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE AND DIRECT THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TO INITIATE A FACILITY AUDIT OF STATE-OWNED FACILITIES; TO REQUIRE THE BUREAU OF BUILDING, GROUNDS AND REAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE AUDIT DATA TO THE LEGISLATURE AND OTHER STATE AGENCIES THAT ARE AFFECTED; TO DIRECT THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TO ONLY USE DISCRETIONARY FUNDS TO INITIATE THE FACILITY AUDIT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. The Department of Finance and Administration, acting through the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management, is hereby authorized and directed to initiate a facility audit for state-owned structures managed by the Department of Finance and Administration and report on or before January 1, 2005, to the Joint Facilities Management Advisory Committee. The report shall also include a plan to audit all state-owned facilities, in addition to the structures managed by the Department of Finance and Administration, on or before January 1, 2008. The facility audit shall be performed by a professional architectural/engineering entity and maintained through completion.

(2) The facility audit shall encompass all existing state-owned facilities and further incorporate all new constructed state-owned facilities managed by the Department of Finance and Administration. The facility audit reporting shall be administered at the discretion of the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management for the purpose of generating reports, determining the value of state-owned facilities and their size, scale, composition, condition and location, and qualifying and prioritizing capital improvement, repair and renovation requests. The Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management shall provide access to the facility audit data to the Legislature and other state agencies that are affected and from which the data is compiled. The Department of Finance and Administration through the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management, is directed to only use discretionary funds to initiate the facility audit.

(3) It is the intent of the Legislature to authorize the facility audit to establish the consolidation of data into a centralized location, to heighten efficiency in processing capital improvement and repair and renovation projects, and to possess the ability to produce data queries on any given entry.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.