Chapter 07. Comptroller of the Treasury

The Comptroller shall promulgate, update, and amend internal policy guidelines to supplement the regulations issued pursuant to this title.

When not acting in the capacity as a member of the Board, the Comptroller's principal responsibility under this title is for the prompt and expeditious payment of valid invoices from contracts approved and submitted by State agencies. The Comptroller's General Accounting Division will document and notify in writing the concerned State agency and the appropriate promulgating authorities of this regulation when the agency has delayed payments. A “delayed payment” condition exists when the date of an individual request for payment received by the General Accounting Division is greater than 25 days from the date the proper invoice is received or the date the services, supplies, maintenance, construction, construction-related, architectural, or engineering services are received and accepted, whichever is later. In this event, the individual request will be considered delayed unless the invoice is a disputed invoice under Regulation .02C.

That the contract has been satisfied pursuant to:

Contractors shall indicate their taxpayer identification number on the face of each invoice billed to the State. The taxpayer identification number is the Social Security number for individuals and sole proprietors and the federal employer identification number for all other types of organizations.

That in the event any delay conditions exist due to partial shipments, damaged goods, incomplete services, invoice errors, or disputed invoices, the State agency shall give proper and timely written notification to all concerned parties. A brief description of the reasons for delay shall accompany the invoice when payment is requested from the General Accounting Division in order to avoid being considered a delayed condition. Once approved, the invoices shall be forwarded by the State agency to the General Accounting Division of the Office of the Comptroller for processing and payment in accordance with the instructions contained in the Accounting Procedures Manual for the Use of State Agencies.

Pursuant to State Finance and Procurement Article, §7-222, Annotated Code of Maryland, the Comptroller may not authorize payment to a contractor who has submitted an invoice if that contractor is indebted to any unit of the State by virtue of unpaid taxes or other obligations owed in an amount of $50 or more.

If taxes or other obligations are owed to the State, payment shall be deferred and the contractor shall be timely notified. Subsequent release of the deferred payment shall be promptly made when the taxes or other obligations are satisfactorily resolved. The taxes or other obligations shall be resolved either by set-off of the amount due the contractor against the amounts due the State or by direct payment.