(a) Any passenger automobile bought wholly or partially with state funds for use of state officers, officials, or employees on official business, including those bought by or for state colleges or universities, shall be purchased from dealerships in the state. Such automobiles shall be equipped as the Director of Finance directs.

(b) This chapter does not apply to vehicles used or operated by presidents of colleges, technical institutes, and universities, emergency vehicles, vehicles purchased for use in transporting drugs, plants, animals or for hospital and health use, and vehicles deemed necessary by the board of trustees of a four-year college or university to be incident to the operation of the college or university.

No passenger automobile shall be purchased for or assigned to any officer or employee of any state agency (which term as used in this chapter shall include state boards, commissions, committees, corporations, departments and offices) except the head or chief executive officer of the agency and such employees of the agency whose duties require the assignment of an automobile, as determined by the head or chief executive officer of the agency and approved by the state Finance Director; provided, that no such redetermination and approval shall be required for any officer or employee referred to in Section 41-17-1.

A transportation pool shall be maintained at a convenient location in the City of Montgomery by the state Department of Finance, Division of Service, for the purpose of providing necessary motor vehicle transportation for state officers and employees who do not have automobiles regularly assigned to them. It shall be the duty of the chief of the division of service to see that all pool cars are maintained in a clean, safe and efficiently operable condition. The chief of the division of service shall appoint a pool dispatcher and such other personnel as may be necessary to effectively operate the pool, who shall, upon request of a state agency head, provide the agency with the automobile as requested. Such pool car shall be loaned to an agency only for a single trip and shall not be assigned to any officer, employee or other person or agency on any basis other than a trip basis. The pool dispatcher shall keep the necessary maintenance and mileage records for each pool car, and the division of service shall charge state agencies a mileage fee for the use of pool cars.

Subject to approval by the Director of Finance, the chief of the division of service shall fix the mileage fee at an amount sufficient to pay only the cost of salaries of motor pool employees, operating expenses and maintaining and replacing pool cars. Based upon monthly mileage reports submitted by the pool dispatcher, the division of service shall render mileage fee bills monthly to state agencies for their use of pool cars. The mileage fee and charges collected shall be deposited to the credit of the revolving fund provided for in Section 41-17-5.

As many automobiles as needed, maintained in a clean, safe and efficient operable condition, shall be kept in the transportation pool at all times for the use of state officers and employees who need transportation on official business.

(a) To finance the operation of the transportation pool and the repair, maintenance and replacement of pool cars, there is hereby established a Transportation Revolving Fund for the use of the Department of Finance.

(b) All fees collected from state agencies for the use of pool cars shall be paid to the Finance Department to the credit of the Transportation Revolving Fund for the necessary maintenance and replacement of pool cars.

(c) It is the intention of the Legislature that the transportation pool be made financially self-supporting from the fees charged the various state agencies for pool services.

All state agencies having their main office or branch offices in an area or areas beyond the serviceable limits of the transportation pool in Montgomery shall pool their automobiles in the area or areas in which they are located if their total assignment of automobiles is more than one. Such pools shall be operated and maintained, insofar as is feasible, under the same rules and regulations as are provided for the operation of the transportation pool in Montgomery.

The Director of Finance is hereby empowered to promulgate such reasonable rules and regulations as may be necessary from time to time to administer the provisions of this article and to provide adequate parking and storage for the pool within the vicinity of the Capitol.

All state automobiles shall be maintained and repaired at cost by the bureau of equipment of the State Department of Transportation or by the Public Safety Department, and all gasoline, lubrication jobs, grease jobs, oil changes, tires and car washes for state automobiles shall be obtained at the facilities of such departments, except in cases which constitute emergencies or whenever such departments are unable to handle the work load or when it is adjudged to be more economical by reason of time or distance to obtain such services elsewhere. The Director of Finance may, however, promulgate reasonable regulations permitting services to be obtained for state automobiles from other sources under such circumstances or conditions as may be necessary or expeditious.

It shall be a misdemeanor for any person to use or permit any other person to use any state-owned automobile for any purpose other than official state business; provided, that driving from his home to his office or place of employment or from his office or place of employment to his home by an officer or employee to whom an automobile is permanently assigned or by an employee to whom a pool car is assigned, if hours of departure or return are inconsistent with normal working hours, shall be deemed to be an authorized use of the automobile for the purposes of this chapter.

It shall be a misdemeanor for any state employee to obliterate, alter, cover or conceal all or any portion of a license plate affixed to a state vehicle.

The Director of the state Department of Public Safety shall be responsible for the enforcement of the provisions concerning the use of state-owned automobiles.

Any unauthorized or improper use of a state automobile by a Merit System employee shall constitute grounds for his dismissal or suspension.