WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor                   Ch. 641

related to capital projects before or without approval by the
Board if:

(i) the subject matter of the contract falls in
an expenditure or use classification established by the Board for
this purpose;

(ii) the annual dollar value of the contract
and its attendant change orders is less than a threshold
established by the Board for the applicable expenditure or use
classification; and

(iii) an accountability or reporting system
approved by the Board is established to inform the Board of
actions taken by the unit under authority granted to the unit.

(2) These regulations are subject to approval by the
Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive, and Legislative
Review.

(c) The thresholds established for purposes of subsection
(b)(1)(ii) of this section shall be sufficiently high to free the
Board from direct review of relatively insignificant items while
not impairing the strong public policy in favor of direct Board
review of items that have a substantial fiscal impact.

12-402.

(a)  Each public agency shall require that every contract
advertised for bid or proposal for the construction or
maintenance of public works or for the purchase or manufacture of
any item of machinery or equipment of at least 10,000 pounds of
steel products to be installed at sites of public works shall
require use or supply of steel products only as defined by this
subtitle in the performance of the contract or any of the
subcontracts, unless the head of the public agency determines in
writing that the cost of steel products is unreasonable or
inconsistent with the public interest.

(b)  The Board of Public Works shall issue rules, IN
ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 10, SUBTITLE 1 OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT
ARTICLE, which provide that, for purposes of subsection (a) of
this section, the bid or offered price of any steel products of
domestic origin is not unreasonable if it does not exceed the sum
of:

(1)  the bid or offered price of like steel products
of foreign origin (including any applicable duty); plus

(2)  a differential of 20 percent of the bid or
offered price of the steel products of foreign origin. However,
if the steel products are produced in a "substantial labor
surplus area" as defined by the United States Department of

- 3011 -