§12-3A-3. Financial electronic commerce.

(a) The State Auditor and the State Treasurer shall implement electronic commerce capabilities for each of their offices to facilitate the performance of their duties under this code. The State Treasurer shall competitively bid the selection of vendors needed to provide the necessary banking, investment and related goods and services, and the provisions of article one-b, chapter five, and articles three and seven, chapter five-a of this code shall not apply, unless requested by the State Treasurer.

(b) A document or a signature received, issued or used by the Auditor or the Treasurer shall be considered an original and may not be denied legal effect on the ground that it is in electronic form.

(c) The Auditor or Treasurer may, in his or her discretion, require documents filed with or submitted to his or her respective office be filed or submitted in a prescribed electronic format.

(d) The Auditor or Treasurer, in his or her discretion, may waive:

(1) Any requirements for a document filed or submitted in an electronic format; or

(2) Any requirements for the certification, notarization or verification of a document filed or submitted in an electronic format.

(e) The head of each spending unit is responsible for adopting and implementing security procedures to ensure adequate integrity, security, confidentiality and auditability of the business transactions of his or her spending unit when utilizing electronic commerce.