§ 15 — Department as public agency for purposes of state finance law

Section 15. The department shall, for the purposes of compliance with state finance law, operate as a state agency as defined in section 1 of chapter 29 and shall be subject to the provisions applicable to agencies under the control of the governor including, but not limited to, chapter 29, chapter 7A, chapter 7 and chapter 10; provided, however, that the comptroller may identify any additional instructions or actions necessary for the department to manage fiscal operations in the state accounting system and meet statewide and other governmental accounting and audit standards. The department shall properly classify the department's operating and capital expenditures, and shall not include any salaries of employees in the department's capital expenditures, unless used as the state match to federal funding for transportation projects; provided, however, that the department shall report annually, on or before February 1, to the house and senate chairs of the joint committee on transportation, on the following: (i) the amount of capital expenditures used as the state match to federally-eligible capital projects; (ii) the total number of department employee salaries included in capital expenditures, including a breakdown by division of the position titles and accompanying salaries; (iii) the total number of employees of the division of highways assigned to capital projects; (iv) a schedule of transportation capital projects where employee salaries are included in capital expenditures; (v) the status of said projects; (vi) any projected cost savings; and (vii) the impact of including department employee salaries in capital expenditures on the ability of the division of highways to plan, design, construct and complete transportation capital projects. Unless otherwise exempted by law or the applicable central service agency, the department shall participate in any other available commonwealth central services including, but not limited, to the state payroll system pursuant to section 31 of chapter 29, and may purchase other goods and services provided by state agencies in accordance with comptroller provisions. This section shall not apply to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Massachusetts Port Authority or the regional transit authorities. The comptroller may chargeback the department for the transition and ongoing costs for participation in the state accounting and payroll systems and may retain and expend such costs without further appropriation for the purposes of this section. The department shall be subject to section 5D of chapter 29 and subsection (f) of section 6B of chapter 29.