§18-11C-6. Conflicts of interest; statement; penalties.

(a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this code to the contrary, officers and employees of the board and the university may hold appointments to offices of the corporation and the system and be members of the boards of directors, or officers or employees of other entities contracting with the corporation, the system or the board or the university. The board and the directors of the corporation and the system, as the case may be, must be informed of the appointments annually, and either the board or the directors of the corporation or the system may require that an appointment be terminated to avoid an actual or potential conflict of interest as determined by the appropriate board: Provided, That between the first and fifteenth day of January of each year, every member of the board of the corporation and the system shall file a written statement, which shall be fully available for public disclosure, with the appropriate chairman of the board, under oath, setting forth:

(1) The name of every person, firm, corporation, association, partnership, sole proprietorship or other business association in which the member, the member's spouse or the unemancipated minor child or children of the member, in their own or the member's name, or beneficially, own at least ten percent of such business entity, or of which he or they are an officer, director, agent, attorney, representative, employee, partner or employer, and which to his actual knowledge is then furnishing or within the previous calendar year has furnished to the state, the board of trustees, West Virginia University or the corporation or system defined in this article, commodities or printing as those terms are defined in section one, article one, chapter five-a of this code; and

(2) Any other interest or relationship which might reasonably be expected to be affected by action taken by the board of the corporation or the system or which in the public interest should be disclosed.

Those persons to whom the provisions of subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection are not applicable shall file a written statement to that effect with the chairman of the board at the same time the reports specified in subdivisions (1) and (2) are required to be filed.

(b) Any person who fails or refuses to file a written statement under oath as required in subsection (a) of this section shall, by operation of law, be automatically removed from the board until the statement is filed.

(c) Any person who intentionally files a false statement under this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction there of, shall be confined in jail not less than six months nor more than one year.