§4-10-7. Agency review.

(a) The division shall conduct agency reviews of one or more state agencies each year. An agency review shall be conducted of each state agency at least once every 15 years. An agency review may be conducted more frequently than once in 15 years and may be conducted in the discretion, and at the direction, of the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Delegates, or by recommendation of the joint standing committee.

(b) The agency review may include, but is not limited to:

(1) An identification and description of the agency under review;

(2) The number of employees of the agency for the immediate past 10 years;

(3) The budget for the agency for the immediate past 10 years;

(4) Whether the agency is effectively and efficiently carrying out its statutory duties or exercising its legal authority;

(5) Whether the activities of the agency duplicate or overlap with those of other agencies and, if so, how these activities could be consolidated;

(6) A cost-benefit analysis, as described in subsection (d) of this section, on state services that are privatized or contemplated to be privatized;

(7) An assessment of the utilization of information technology systems within the agency, including interagency and intra-agency communications;

(8) An analysis of any issues raised by any presentation by the department under whose purview the agency falls made pursuant to the provisions of this article;

(9) An analysis of any other issues as the committee, the joint standing committee, the President of the Senate, or the Speaker of the House of Delegates may direct; and

(10) A recommendation as to whether the agency under review should be continued, consolidated, or terminated.

(c) An agency may be subject to a compliance review pursuant to the provisions of this article.

(d) A cost-benefit analysis authorized by this section may include:

(1) The tangible benefits of privatizing the service;

(2) Any legal impediments that may limit or prevent privatization of the service;

(3) The availability of multiple qualified and competitive private vendors; and

(4) A cost comparison, including total fixed and variable, direct and indirect, costs of the current governmental operation and the private vendor contract.