Request By:
Ms. Mary Thurman
Fiscal Officer
Department of Tourism
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your letter presents a problem concerning the legality of advance payments for operational expenses of the International Tourism Office of the state of Kentucky, located in Brussels, Belgium.
Your concern arises out of the fact that any practice of making full or partial payments on state personal service contracts in advance of the actual and full performance of the contract is unconstitutional. See KRS 45.340, 44.010, 64.410, §§ 3 and 171, Kentucky Constitution. See also
Webster County v. Vaughn, Ky., 365 S.W.2d 109 (1963) 110.
In your factual statement you stated that compensation for the personal services of the Director of the Tourism Office has always been paid on a monthly basis, after his personal services have been rendered for that pay period. You also stated that the director has maintained a bank account [receiving the state money] in Brussels for the purpose of expediting operating expense claims, but such claims are paid only after the service or goods have been completely performed or furnished.
We understand that, notwithstanding OAG 79-532 on a similar question, the Personal Services Contract Review Board requires a separate opinion for each individual contract.
Under the facts given, it is our opinion that the advance transfer of state money to the Brussels office for the payment of operational expenses is constitutional under §§ 3 and 171, since the final and effective disbursement of the state money is made only after the goods and services, for which a claim is made, have been fully furnished and performed. No money is paid for a claim not due.
As we said in OAG 79-532, the mere transfer of the state money from the state's depository to the Brussel's Kentucky Office of Tourism in reality does not involve, at that point, a final effective disbursement. The money at that point is still intact and unexpended.