Senate Bill 2795

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH AN OFFICE OF SHARED SERVICES (OSS) IN THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION; TO PROVIDE THAT BEGINNING ON JULY 1, 2011, THE OFFICE OF SHARED SERVICES SHALL ESTABLISH A CENTRAL BUSINESS OFFICE FOR SELECT BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS IN THE STATE; TO PROVIDE ACCOUNTING SERVICES, PAYROLL SERVICES, HUMAN RESOURCE SERVICES, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES AND PROCUREMENT CONTRACTING SERVICES; TO CENTRALLY LOCATE THE SELECT BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS; TO REQUIRE THE OFFICE OF SHARED SERVICES TO DEVELOP A TRANSITION PLAN TO PHASE-IN THESE SERVICES PRIOR TO JANUARY 31, 2011; TO REQUIRE SELECT BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS TO COMPLY WITH THE PLAN; TO AUTHORIZE FEES FOR SERVICES; TO AMEND SECTION 27-104-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, IN CONFORMITY THERETO; TO AMEND SECTION 25-9-107, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT ALL EMPLOYEES AND SERVICE FUNCTIONS OF THE OFFICE OF SHARED SERVICES SHALL BE EXEMPT FROM STATE SERVICE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

SECTION 1. There is hereby established the Office of Shared Services (OSS) within the Department of Finance and Administration. The following terms, when used in conjunction with the OSS, shall have these meanings:

(a) "Accounting services" means general accounting services to include, but not be limited to, accounts receivable, accounts payable, financial statement preparation, inventory, and related.

(b) "Human resource services" means transaction processing associated with employment activities, and related.

(c) "Information technology services" means network, desktop, telecommunications, application and infrastructure support and resources to include technology procurement and policy, and related.

(d) "Payroll and travel services" means preparation and distribution of all payroll and travel payments, and related.

(e) "Purchasing and contracting services" means transaction processing for the acquisition of goods and services, contract review, and related.

(f) "Shared services" means accounting services, human resource services, information technology services, payroll and travel services, and purchasing and contracting services defined by this section, to include the establishment of a central location for these select boards and commissions and with shared meeting facilities, and related.

(g) "State employee" means any state service or nonstate service member as defined by Section 25-9-107.

(h) "Select boards and commissions" means any state board, commission, committee, council, department or unit thereof created by the Constitution or statutes if such board, commission, committee, council, department, unit or the head thereof, is authorized to appoint subordinate staff by the Constitution or statute, including a legislative or judicial board, commission, committee, council, department or unit thereof.

SECTION 2. (1) There is hereby established the Office of Shared Services (OSS) within the Department of Finance and Administration to operate as the central business office for select boards and commissions, to provide shared services to these select boards and commissions, with such services to be phased-in according to a timetable developed pursuant to subsection (2) of this section. The Executive Director of the Department of Finance and Administration shall employ a competent person as Director of the Office of Shared Services and necessary staff for the office, who shall be members of nonstate service and shall receive a salary as determined by the executive director with the approval of the State Personnel Board. The Director of the Office of Shared Services may also contract with private vendors for a portion of the workforce necessary to operate the functions of the Office of Shared Services.

(2) The Office of Shared Services, beginning July 1, 2010, shall develop an implementation plan to bring the business services described in subsection (1) of this section online for select boards and commissions in an orderly transition, beginning on July 1, 2010, with complete transition no later than July 1, 2011. The implementation plan shall include PIN numbers and titles of agency positions whose functions will be eliminated or transferred to the Office of Shared Services, and shall include any contracted service that will be eliminated or transferred according to the assumption of the function by the Office of Shared Services. The implementation plan shall also outline required workflows and controls required to connect the program functions of select boards and commissions with the central business functions within the Office of Shared Services. The Office of Shared Services is authorized to determine the methodology for implementing shared services and the transition order for state agencies. The Office of Shared Services may contract with private vendors to develop the business case and implementation plan. The Office of Shared Services may by rule describe the business services to be provided by the Office of Shared Services and their applicability to each select board and commission, and the implementation plan shall be subject to approval by the Executive Director of the Department of Finance and Administration. After approval by the Executive Director of the Department of Finance and Administration, the administrative head of each select board and commission shall comply with the schedule of services developed and issued by the Office of Shared Services and shall not spend appropriated funds to provide or contract for services to be provided by the Office of Shared Services.

(3) The Office of Shared Services, with the approval of the Executive Director of the Department of Finance and Administration, shall set and charge a fee to each state agency that receives a shared business service from the Office of Shared Services in an amount sufficient to cover the direct and indirect cost of providing the service.

(4) The Office of Shared Services is authorized and empowered to establish rules and guidelines to implement this section.

(5) The Executive Director of the Department of Finance and Administration shall promulgate regulations for central payment of salaries and travel to state employees by electronic funds transfer from the Office of Shared Services.

SECTION 3. The Office of Shared Services shall make a report to the Legislature during the 2011 Regular Session regarding the costs to establish the Office of Shared Services and transition state agency business services to the Office of Shared Services. The reports shall also include the projected savings resulting from implementation of this act and the comprehensive implementation plan.

SECTION 4. Section 27-104-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

27-104-3. In addition to other powers and duties prescribed by statute, the Department of Finance and Administration shall have the following powers and duties, with regard to fiscal management:

(a) Provide direct technical assistance and training to state agencies and departments in implementing generally accepted accounting principles, in preparing financial statements as required by law, and in management and executive development.

(b) Provide temporary administrative services in financial accounting and public administration to any state agency, department or institution upon request of the governing board of the state agency, department or institution.

(c) Prepare and issue a comprehensive reference manual or manuals of policies and procedures for each state agency and department to use, which may include chapters on purchasing, personnel, payroll, travel, chart of accounts, fund classifications, receipts, warrants, expenditures, fixed assets, property inventory, and maintaining financial records and preparing financial reports as required and prescribed by law. The manual shall be revised on a continuing basis. The manual shall be prepared and revised in consultation with the State Auditor's office.

(d) Provide assistance to any state agency, department or institution in collecting a fee or other valid obligation that another agency, department or institution has failed to pay to it. For purposes of this paragraph, the agency, department or institution seeking to collect the funds shall be referred to as the "creditor agency," and the agency, department or institution that has not paid the creditor agency shall be referred to as the "delinquent agency." A valid obligation may be evidenced by an invoice or any other documentation as may be required by the Department of Finance and Administration, hereinafter referred to as the department. A creditor agency may request assistance from the department, and the department may require the creditor agency to furnish detailed information regarding the obligation. Upon determining that the delinquent agency owes the creditor agency a specific amount, the State Fiscal Officer shall pay to the creditor agency that amount out of any funds in the State Treasury to the credit of the delinquent agency. The State Fiscal Officer shall notify the creditor agency and the delinquent agency of the total amount of funds transferred. Either agency may appeal the transfer of funds or the failure to transfer funds, under rules and regulations promulgated by the department and approved by the Office of the State Auditor. The Department of Finance and Administration shall report any actions taken under this paragraph (d) to the Chairmen of the Appropriations Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate on a quarterly basis.

(e) Beginning July 1, 2010, establish an Office of Shared Services, employ a director of the office and administer a central business office to provide shared services for select boards and commissions as prescribed in Section 2 of this act.

SECTION 5. Section 25-9-107, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

25-9-107. The following terms, when used in this chapter, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context, shall have the following meanings:

(a) "Board" means the State Personnel Board created under the provisions of this chapter.

(b) "State service" means all employees of state departments, agencies and institutions as defined herein, except those officers and employees excluded by this chapter.

(c) "Nonstate service" means the following officers and employees excluded from the state service by this chapter. The following are excluded from the state service:

(i) Members of the State Legislature, their staff and other employees of the legislative branch;

(ii) The Governor and staff members of the immediate Office of the Governor;

(iii) Justices and judges of the judicial branch or members of appeals boards on a per diem basis;

(iv) The Lieutenant Governor, staff members of the immediate Office of the Lieutenant Governor and officers and employees directly appointed by the Lieutenant Governor;

(v) Officers and officials elected by popular vote and persons appointed to fill vacancies in elective offices;

(vi) Members of boards and commissioners appointed by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor or the State Legislature;

(vii) All academic officials, members of the teaching staffs and employees of the state institutions of higher learning, the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges, and community and junior colleges;

(viii) Officers and enlisted members of the National Guard of the state;

(ix) Prisoners, inmates, student or patient help working in or about institutions;

(x) Contract personnel; provided, that any agency which employs state service employees may enter into contracts for personal and professional services only if such contracts are approved in compliance with the rules and regulations promulgated by the State Personal Service Contract Review Board under Section 25-9-120(3). Before paying any warrant for such contractual services in excess of One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00), the Auditor of Public Accounts, or the successor to those duties, shall determine whether the contract involved was for personal or professional services, and, if so, was approved by the State Personal Service Contract Review Board;

(xi) Part-time employees; provided, however, part-time employees shall only be hired into authorized employment positions classified by the board, shall meet minimum qualifications as set by the board, and shall be paid in accordance with the Variable Compensation Plan as certified by the board;

(xii) Persons appointed on an emergency basis for the duration of the emergency; the effective date of the emergency appointments shall not be earlier than the date approved by the State Personnel Director, and shall be limited to thirty (30) working days. Emergency appointments may be extended to sixty (60) working days by the State Personnel Board;

(xiii) Physicians, dentists, veterinarians, nurse practitioners and attorneys, while serving in their professional capacities in authorized employment positions who are required by statute to be licensed, registered or otherwise certified as such, provided that the State Personnel Director shall verify that the statutory qualifications are met prior to issuance of a payroll warrant by the Auditor;

(xiv) Personnel who are employed and paid from funds received from a federal grant program which has been approved by the Legislature or the Department of Finance and Administration whose length of employment has been determined to be time-limited in nature. This subparagraph shall apply to personnel employed under the provisions of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973, as amended, and other special federal grant programs which are not a part of regular federally funded programs wherein appropriations and employment positions are appropriated by the Legislature. Such employees shall be paid in accordance with the Variable Compensation Plan and shall meet all qualifications required by federal statutes or by the Mississippi Classification Plan;

(xv) The administrative head who is in charge of any state department, agency, institution, board or commission, wherein the statute specifically authorizes the Governor, board, commission or other authority to appoint said administrative head; provided, however, that the salary of such administrative head shall be determined by the State Personnel Board in accordance with the Variable Compensation Plan unless otherwise fixed by statute;

(xvi) The State Personnel Board shall exclude top-level positions if the incumbents determine and publicly advocate substantive program policy and report directly to the agency head, or the incumbents are required to maintain a direct confidential working relationship with a key excluded official. Provided further, a written job classification shall be approved by the board for each such position, and positions so excluded shall be paid in conformity with the Variable Compensation Plan;

(xvii) Employees whose employment is solely in connection with an agency's contract to produce, store or transport goods, and whose compensation is derived therefrom;

(xviii) Repealed;

(xix) The associate director, deputy directors and bureau directors within the Department of Agriculture and Commerce;

(xx) Personnel employed by the Mississippi Industries for the Blind; provided, that any agency may enter into contracts for the personal services of MIB employees without the prior approval of the State Personnel Board or the State Personal Service Contract Review Board; however, any agency contracting for the personal services of an MIB employee shall provide the MIB employee with not less than the entry-level compensation and benefits that the agency would provide to a full-time employee of the agency who performs the same services;

(xxi) Personnel employed by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources as law enforcement trainees (cadets); such personnel shall be paid in accordance with the Colonel Guy Groff State Variable Compensation Plan;

(xxii) From July 1, 2010, the director and any employee of the Office of Shared Services of the Department of Finance and Administration established by Section 1 of this act, and any employee in a position transferred according to the assumption of the functions of the Office of Shared Services.

(d) "Agency" means any state board, commission, committee, council, department or unit thereof created by the Constitution or statutes if such board, commission, committee, council, department, unit or the head thereof, is authorized to appoint subordinate staff by the Constitution or statute, except a legislative or judicial board, commission, committee, council, department or unit thereof.

SECTION 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2010.