§103D-309  Contract not binding unless fundsavailable.  (a)  Contracts awarded pursuant to section 103D-302, 103D-303,or 103D-306, shall neither be binding nor have any force and effect of lawunless the comptroller, the director of finance of a county, or the respectivechief financial officers of the department of education, the judiciary, or thelegislative branches of the State or county, as the case may be, endorsesthereon a certificate that there is an appropriation or balance of anappropriation over and above all outstanding contracts, sufficient to cover theamount required by the contract; provided that if the contract is a multi-termcontract, the comptroller, director of finance, or chief financial officershall only be required to certify that there is an appropriation or balance ofan appropriation over and above all outstanding contracts, that is sufficientto cover the amount required to be paid under the contract during the fiscalyear or remaining portion of the fiscal year of each term of the multi-yearcontract; provided further that the administrator of the state procurementoffice shall attest in writing to any recommendation or solicitations.  Thissection shall not apply to any contract under which the total amount to be paidto the contractor cannot be accurately estimated at the time the contract is tobe awarded, or to any contract for which consideration is in kind orforbearance, or to any contract awarded pursuant to section 103D-306 that is aone-time payment through a purchase order.

(b)  In any contract involving not only stateor county funds but supplemental funds from the federal government, thissection shall be applicable only to that portion of the contract price as ispayable out of state or county funds.  As to the portion of the contract priceas is expressed in the contract to be payable out of federal funds, thecontract shall be construed to be an agreement to pay the portion to thecontractor, only out of federal funds to be received from the federalgovernment.  This subsection shall be liberally construed so as not to hinderor impede the State in contracting for any project involving financial aid fromthe federal government. [L Sp 1993, c 8, pt of §2; am L 1995, c 178, §13; am L1999, c 149, §15]