There is hereby created within the Mississippi Department of Transportation an office to be called the Office of State Aid Road Construction, for the purpose and charged with the duty of administering this chapter. The office shall be administered by a state aid engineer and such assistant engineers or other employees as may be provided in this chapter. Whenever the term “Division of State Aid Road Construction” appears in the laws of this state, it shall mean the Office of State Aid Road Construction.
All duties, powers and responsibilities for the administration and management of the Office of State Aid Road Construction shall be vested in and performed exclusively by the State Aid Engineer.
All of the powers of the State Aid Engineer herein provided are with reference to the expenditures of state aid funds and are not intended to interfere in any way with the constitutional jurisdiction of any board of supervisors. In order to obtain state aid funds, however, and whenever any state aid funds are being used, the provisions of this chapter shall have full force and effect.
The State Aid Engineer shall adopt a complete, detailed and itemized budget for the Office of State Aid Road Construction, as may be required by the Legislative Budget Office, separate and apart from the budget of the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Copies of the detailed budget shall be filed with the Governor, the Legislative Budget Office and the State Fiscal Management Board on or before April 30 of each year, and shall cover anticipated construction and administrative expenditures for the ensuing fiscal year. No expenditures shall be made in excess of the budget amount approved and appropriated by the Legislature.