Authority: Title 33.1, Code of Virginia.

A. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the highway share of the Transportation Trust Fund shall be used for highway maintenance and operation purposes prior to its availability for new development, acquisition, and construction.

B.1. To provide for statewide consistency, accountability, and management, this Item includes funding and positions previously allocated to other programs, such as the Construction Management program, for the management of the Department of Transportation's programs.

2. The positions throughout the state have responsibility for a variety of programs, and projects, which include maintenance, operations, and construction. The activities associated with these programs and projects include, but are not limited to, district and residency administration, accounting and budgeting, human resources, procurement, planning and evaluation, and auditing.

3. Also included in this Item is the consolidation of information technology activities and positions, which may be transferred to the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.

4. The amounts appropriated shall be used for the absorption of “prorated” charges from expenditures previously expended in the maintenance and construction programs.

C. Out of the amounts for General Management and Direction, allocations shall be provided to the Commonwealth Transportation Board to support its operations, the payment of financial advisory and legal services, and the management of the Transportation Trust Fund.

D. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Department may assess and collect the costs of providing services to other entities, public and private. The Department shall take all actions necessary to ensure that all such costs are reasonable and appropriate, recovered, and understood as a condition to providing such service.

E. Each year, as part of the six-year financial planning process, the Commissioner shall implement a long-term business strategy that considers appropriate staffing levels for the department. In addition, the Commissioner shall identify services, programs, or projects that will be evaluated for devolution or outsourcing in the upcoming year. In undertaking such evaluations, the Commissioner is authorized to use the appropriate resources, both public and private, to competitively procure those identified services, programs, or projects and shall identify total costs for such activities. The Commissioner shall include annually in the update of the six-year plan a report on the department's evaluations of outsourcing and devolution opportunities, and the outcome of those evaluations. Such report shall include an analysis of the costs of the services provided by the Commonwealth compared to costs associated with outsourcing those same services.

F. Any action to modernize and integrate the automated systems of the Department of Transportation shall be based on a plan that includes developing the integrated system in phases, or modules.

G. The Auditor of Public Accounts shall conduct a follow-up status review of his July 8, 2002, report entitled "Special Review of the Cash Management and Capital Budgeting Practices” for the Department of Transportation. The Auditor shall specifically review Transportation's implementation of the cash and expenditure forecasting model, project cost estimating system and the development of the Six Year Program as a financially constrained budget. The Auditor shall include Transportation's progress on implementing all other recommendations within the July 8, 2002, report. The Auditor shall report his findings to the Governor and the Secretary of Transportation and to the Chairmen of the House Committees on Transportation and Appropriations and the Senate Committees on Transportation and Finance no later than December 1, 2004.

H. The Department of Transportation shall work with the Secretary of Transportation to develop performance goals and strategies in budget amendments to be submitted for review and approval by the 2005 Session. Goals and strategies shall be based on realistic assumptions of revenues and appropriations, and shall address the major activities of the agency, including: (1) highway system maintenance; (2) highway system construction; (3) financial planning, management, and accountability; (4) toll facilities operations and management; (5) environmental evaluation and planning; (6) traffic engineering; and (7) transportation research.

I. Notwithstanding § 4-2.03 of this act, the Virginia Department of Transportation shall be exempt from recovering statewide and agency indirect costs from the Federal Highway Administration until an indirect cost plan can be evaluated and developed by the agency and approved by the Federal Highway Administration.