Section 230. Certification of documents

A. The following documents submitted to the board shall be signed by a responsible official: (i) any emission statement, application, form, report, or compliance certification; (ii) any document required to be so signed by any provision of the regulations of the board; or (iii) any other document containing emissions data or compliance information the owner wishes the board to consider in the administration of its air quality programs. A responsible official is defined as follows:

1. For a business entity, such as a corporation, association or cooperative, a responsible official is either:

a. The president, secretary, treasurer, or a vice president of the business entity in charge of a principal business function, or any other person who performs similar policy or decision-making functions for the business entity; or

b. A duly authorized representative of such business entity if the representative is responsible for the overall operation of one or more manufacturing, production, or operating facilities applying for or subject to a permit and either (i) the facilities employ more than 250 persons or have gross annual sales or expenditures exceeding $25 million (in second quarter 1980 dollars) or (ii) the authority to sign documents has been assigned or delegated to such representative in accordance with procedures of the business entity.

2. For a partnership or sole proprietorship, a responsible official is a general partner or the proprietor, respectively.

3. For a municipality, state, federal, or other public agency, a responsible official is either a principal executive officer or ranking elected official. A principal executive officer of a federal agency includes the chief executive officer having responsibility for the overall operations of a principal geographic unit of the agency.

B. Any person signing a document under subsection A of this section shall make the following certification:

"I certify under penalty of law that this document and all attachments were prepared under my direction or supervision in accordance with a system designed to assure that qualified personnel properly gather and evaluate the information submitted. Based on my inquiry of the person or persons who manage the system, or those persons directly responsible for gathering and evaluating the information, the information submitted is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, true, accurate, and complete. I am aware that there are significant penalties for submitting false information, including the possibility of fine and imprisonment for knowing violations."

C. Subsection B of this section shall be interpreted to mean that the signer must have some form of direction or supervision over the persons gathering the data and preparing the document (the preparers), although the signer need not personally nor directly supervise these activities. The signer need not be in the same line of authority as the preparers, nor do the persons gathering the data and preparing the form need to be employees (e.g., outside contractors can be used). It is sufficient that the signer has authority to assure that the necessary actions are taken to prepare a complete and accurate document.

D. Any person who fails to submit any relevant facts or who has submitted incorrect information in a document shall, upon becoming aware of such failure or incorrect submittal, promptly submit such supplementary facts or corrected information.

Historical Notes

Derived from Volume 14, Issue 11, eff. April 1, 1998.

Statutory Authority

§§ 10.1-1308 and 10.1-1322 of the Code of Virginia.