(a) The department is given the authority and charged with the duty of managing the utilization of administrative space by all state agencies in a manner that is the most cost efficient and operationally effective and which provides decentralization of state government. Such management shall include the authority to assign and reassign administrative space to state agencies based on the needs of the agencies as determined by standards for administrative space utilization promulgated by the commissioner pursuant to Code Section 50-5-33 and shall include the obligation to advise the Office of Planning and Budget and state agencies and departments of cost-effective, decentralized alternatives.

(b) The management of the utilization of administrative space by the department shall include entering into any necessary agreements to rent or lease administrative space, whether existing or to be constructed and shall include administrative space rented or leased by a state agency from the Georgia Building Authority or from any other public or private person, firm, or corporation. When it becomes necessary to rent or lease administrative space, the space shall be rented or leased by the department and assigned to the state agency or agencies requiring the space.

(c) If the department reassigns all or any portion of any administrative space which is leased or rented by one state agency to another state agency, the state agency to which the administrative space is reassigned shall pay to the department rental charges, as determined by the department, for the utilization of the space; and the department shall, in turn, use the rental charges so paid for the purpose of paying or partially paying, as the case may be, the rent or lease payments due the lessor of the administrative space in accordance with the terms of the lease or rent contract existing at the time of the reassignment of the administrative space. Any such payments to a lessor by the department shall be on behalf of the state agency which is the lessee of the administrative space reassigned as provided herein.

(d) The management of the utilization of administrative space given to the department by this article shall not be construed to impair the obligation of any contract executed before July 1, 1976, between any state agency and the Georgia Building Authority or between any state agency and any other public or private person, firm, or corporation; and the powers given to the department by this article shall not be implemented or carried out in such a manner as to impair the obligation of any such contract.