A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT relating to the recommendations of the governor's efficiency study commission RELATING TO A FEE FOR THE STATEWIDE ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE PROGRAM AND IMPLEMENTING AN EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT COST-SAVINGS PROGRAM.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 147‑86.22(c) reads as rewritten:
"(c)	Collection Techniques. – The State Controller, in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General, shall establish policies and procedures to govern techniques for collection of accounts receivable. These techniques may include use of collection agencies, credit reporting bureaus, judicial remedies authorized by law, and administrative setoff by a reduction of an individual's tax refund pursuant to the Setoff Debt Collection Act, Chapter 105A of the General Statutes, or a reduction of another payment, other than payroll, due from the State to a person to reduce or eliminate an account receivable that the person owes the State.
No later than January 1, 1999, the State Controller shall negotiate a contract with a third party to perform an audit and collection process of inadvertent overpayments by State agencies to vendors as a result of pricing errors, neglected rebates and discounts, miscalculated freight charges, unclaimed refunds, erroneously paid excise taxes, and related errors. The third party shall be compensated only from funds recovered as a result of the audit. Savings realized in excess of costs shall be transferred from the agency to the Office of State Budget and Management and placed in a special reserve account for future direction by the General Assembly. Any disputed savings shall be settled by the State Controller. This paragraph does not apply to the purchase of medical services by State agencies or payments used to reimburse or otherwise pay for health care services."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 147‑86.22 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:
"(d)	Fee. – A collection assistance fee is imposed on a past-due debt that remains unpaid 30 days or more after the fee notice required by this subsection is mailed to the debtor. In order to impose a collection assistance fee on a past-due debt, the agency shall notify the debtor that the fee will be imposed if the past-due debt is not paid in full within 30 days after the date the fee notice was mailed to the debtor. The amount of the collection assistance fee is twenty percent (20%) of the amount of the overdue debt. If the State agency collects only part of the overdue debt, the collection assistance fee has priority over the debt. The fee is a receipt of the agency and shall be applied to the costs of collecting past-due debts. The proceeds of the fee shall be credited to a special account within the agency and may be expended only as provided in this subsection. The agency may apply the proceeds of the fee to pay contractors for collecting debts under this subsection."
SECTION 3.  Chapter 143 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new Article to read:
"Article 36B.
"Efficiency Improvement Cost-Savings Program.
"§ 143-345.30. Efficiency Improvement Cost-Savings Program, reserve.
A competitive grant reserve shall be set up in the Office of State Budget and Management to fund State agency efficiency improvements. One-half of one percent (0.5%) of the General Fund operating appropriations of most State agencies (after exclusions for certain instructional, entitlement, and other special accounts) shall be set aside with one-half of that being reverted to the General Fund immediately. Of the part remaining in the competitive reserve, one-half shall be used to implement cost-savings efficiency projects internal to State agencies and the other one-half shall be used to implement cost-savings efficiency projects that are either multiagency or statewide improvement projects. The Office of State Budget and Management and the Office of the State Controller shall adopt rules for the operation of the competitive grant reserve. The Office of State Auditor shall conduct audits as required to confirm that the savings actually occur."
SECTION 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2002.