SPIRO T. AGNEW, Governor                        1401

functions which are vested in the local departments in the coun-
ties under this Article.

3.

(a)     Coordinating agency of [welfare] social service and public
assistance activities.—The State Department [of Public Welfare]
shall be the central, coordinating and directing agency of all [wel-
fare] social service and public assistance activities in this State,
including aid to families with dependent children, old age assistance,
public assistance to the needy blind, general public assistance, aid
to the permanently and totally disabled, child welfare services, and
any other [welfare] social service and public assistance activities
financed in whole or in part by the State Department [of Public
Welfare].

[(b) Responsibility for medical care to public assistance
clients.—The State Department shall have responsibility for medical
care to public assistance clients to the extent that funds are pro-
vided in appropriations to the Department in the State Budget, and
make such plans, including contractual relations, with other agen-
cies and institutions as may be necessary to carry this responsibility
into effect.]

(b)    Supervision of activities of local departments.—All of the
activities of the local departments in the counties and in Baltimore
City, which the State Department finances, in whole or in part,
shall be subject to the supervision, direction and control of the
State Department.

(c3 (C) The State Department shall exercise supervision, as herein-
after set forth, over all public and private institutions having the
care, custody or control of dependent, abandoned or neglected chil-
dren, except those institutions under the authority of the State
Department of Juvenile Services and those agencies, persons, or
institutions designated by that Department as provided for in Article
52A, Section 7.

[(d) Supervision of activities of local welfare departments.—
All of the activities of the local welfare departments in the counties
and in Baltimore City (which term includes the department of pub-
lic welfare in Baltimore City), hereinafter provided for, which
the State Department of Public Welfare finances, in whole or in
part, shall be subject to the supervision, direction and control of the
State Department of Public Welfare.]

(d) To enable the State Department to discharge properly the
duties imposed upon it, the State Department may of its own motion,
or by the direction of the Governor shall, cause charges to be formu-
lated against any corporation, association, institution or agency en-
gaged in charitable or social services or welfare activities, except
State-aided hospitals, receiving financial assistance from the State
or with which the State has contracts, and cause a copy of such
charges to be served on such corporation, association, institution or
agency. The State Department shall have power to issue summonses
for witnesses and documents, with WHICH summonses shall be duly
served, as are other similar writs, by any sheriff to whom the same
shall be directed, and to administer oaths, and take testimony which it
shall cause to be transcribed and included in its report. The Gov-