Alabama. State Board of Administration.

Sources:

Acts of Alabama.

In 1919 the Legislature abolished the State Board of Inspectors of Convicts and transferred the powers and authority of that body to the State Board of Control and Economy (SBCE). Likewise the duties of State Prison Inspector were placed under the jurisdiction of the SBCE. The duties of the President of the Board of Inspectors of Convicts were exercised by the state Warden General, appointed by the governor for a four-year term and subordinant to the SBCE. The SBCE was vested with the power to make arrangements for convicts who were also tubercular patients and other convict patients needing long-term hospital care (Acts of Ala., 1919, No. 758, Sections 1-3).

The SBCE received the duty of providing for the public printing and binding of the laws, journals, and other public instruments, as well as to make emergency purchases for the State of Alabama. The care, custody, equipment, repairing, insuring, inventorying, and accounting for all of the property of the State was likewise placed under the jurisdiction of the SBCE. The SBCE could act as the purchasing agent for the counties of the State when requested to do so by certain governing bodies of those counties. Those changes took effect on 1920 Jan. 1 (Acts of Ala., 1919, No. 758, Sections 4-9).

In 1923 the Legislature amended the above act and renamed the State Board of Control and Economy the State Board of Convict Supervisors (SBCS). The board consisted of two members appointed by the Governor, one designated as President and the other as Associate Member. The SBCS had the charge, management, and operation of the convict system of the State, and was empowered to make all contracts, rules, and regulations for its own government and for the use of the convicts. (Acts of Ala., 1923, No. 85, Sections 1-9, 11-13).

The State Board of Convict Supervisors had the duties of the SBCE plus additional and more detailed duties. Among the duties of the SBCS were: 1) to require any person who handled public money to be bonded; 2) to purchase all supplies and equipment, including routine office supplies, for all departments and activities of the State, except educational, charitable, and eleemosynary institutions governed by their own board of trustees or managers, and that such supplies were purchased via low bid contracts, and to make rules for those institutions to purchase all supplies and equipment; 3) to keep complete records of all requisitions, bids, correspondence, of the Board; 4) to have the same duties as the SBCE for printing of public documents and the inventorying of property. The Act took effect on 1923 Feb. 23. (Acts of Ala., 1923, No. 85, Sections 10, 14-27)

In 1923 the Legislature changed the name of the State Board of Convicts Supervisors to the State Board of Administration. The act took effect on 1923 Oct. 1. (Acts of Ala., 1923, No. 475) The State Board of Administration also administered the State Insurance Fund. The act was approved and took effect on 1923 Oct. 2. (Acts of Ala., 1923, No. 593)

The State Board of Administration was abolished in 1939 Mar. Its duties regarding convicts were assumed by the Dept. of Corrections and Institutions. (Acts of Ala. 1939, No. 91) Its duties regarding printing and binding, the purchase or contracts or leasing for the acquisitions or use of furniture, fixtures, supplies, materials, equipment and other personal property, the distribution of such property, printed matter and school text books, the making and keeping of inventories of State property, the insurance of State property, the operation, management, and administration of the State Insurance Fund, the operation, management, and administration of the State Surety Fund, and all accounting and auditing functions and duties were assumed by the Dept. of Finance. The act was approved and took effect on 1939 Mar. 7. (Acts of Ala., 1939, No. 112, Section 12)