§ 179-m. Duties of the comptroller. 1. The state comptroller shall:
a. Promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the comptroller's responsibilities under this article.
b. Develop and implement a procedure for calculating the amount of interest, if any, due to any contractor pursuant to the provisions of this article. Such procedure shall include provisions for calculating (i) the amount of time, in calendar days, between the date of receipt of a proper invoice by the state agency and the date on which an approvable voucher was delivered to the state comptroller; (ii) the amount of time between the date on which an approvable voucher was delivered to the state comptroller and the payment date; (iii) the amount of interest, if any, chargeable to the state agency involved pursuant to this article; and (iv) the amount of interest, if any, chargeable to the department of audit and control pursuant to this article.
c. Develop and implement a procedure for paying such interest in not more than seven days from the payment date on those proper invoices for which interest is due and for which the director of the budget does not issue a certificate or certificates increasing, transferring, or interchanging funds so that an interest payment can be made pusuant to this article. The comptroller shall also develop and implement a procedure for paying such interest in not more than fourteen days from the payment date on those proper invoices for which interest is due and for which the director of the budget does issue a certificate or certificates increasing, transferring, or interchanging funds so that an interest payment can be made pursuant to this article.
d. Develop and implement a procedure by which every state agency will notify contractors promptly and directly whenever the state comptroller rejects a voucher and returns it to the state agency due to an error or omission in the voucher by the contractor.
2. Nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to preclude the comptroller from subsequently promulgating, developing, or amending rules and regulations or procedures pursuant to, and consistent with, this article.
3. The state comptroller shall submit a detailed special report to the governor and the legislature which shall include the number and amounts of interest payments made for each state agency, the number of interest chargeable days and the number of days taken to process the contract payment, the extent to which those delays occurred because the state agency took longer than allotted pursuant to the provisions of this article to process the affected invoices and the extent to which those delays occurred because the department of audit and control took longer than allotted pursuant to the provisions of this article to process the related vouchers, and a summary of the principal reasons that such late payments occurred. The report shall be delivered to the governor and legislature within sixty calendar days after the conclusion of each fiscal year.
