(a) The authority and responsibility for administering this article shall be vested in the administrator of the Commission on Equal Opportunity.

(b) The administrator may delegate any of the administrator's functions, duties, and powers to employees of the Commission on Equal Opportunity or to boards of such employees, including functions, duties, and powers with respect to investigating, conciliating, hearing, determining, ordering, certifying, reporting, or otherwise acting as to any work, business, or matter under this article. Insofar as possible, conciliation meetings shall be held in the cities or other localities where the discriminatory housing practices allegedly occurred.

(c) All departments and agencies of state government shall administer their programs and activities relating to housing and urban development in a manner affirmatively to further the purposes of this article and shall cooperate with the administrator to further such purposes.

(d) The administrator shall:

(1) Make studies with respect to the nature and extent of discriminatory housing practices in representative communities, urban, suburban, and rural, throughout the state;

(2) Publish in print or electronically and disseminate reports, recommendations, and information derived from such studies;

(3) Cooperate with and render technical assistance to local and other public or private agencies, organizations, and institutions which are formulating or carrying on programs to prevent or eliminate discriminatory housing practices;

(4) Administer the programs and activities relating to housing in a manner affirmatively to further the policies of this article;

(5) Adopt, promulgate, amend, and rescind, subject to the approval of the Governor after giving proper notice and hearing to all interested parties pursuant to Chapter 13 of Title 50, the "Georgia Administrative Procedure Act," such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this article;

(6) Cooperate with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development created by Section 10(b) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 (79 Stat. 667) and with other federal and local agencies in order to achieve the purposes of Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (82 Stat. 81), as amended by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 (102 Stat. 1619), and to cooperate with other federal and local agencies in order to achieve the purposes of this article;

(7) Accept gifts, bequests, grants, or other public or private payments on behalf of the state and pay such moneys into the state treasury;

(8) Accept on behalf of the state reimbursement pursuant to Section 810 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (82 Stat. 85), as amended by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 (102 Stat. 1625), for services rendered to assist the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development; and

(9) Maintain with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development status as a "certified agency" under Section 810 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (82 Stat. 85), as amended by the Fair Housing Act of 1988 (102 Stat. 1625), and as provided by the rules and regulations of said department.

(e) In any case where the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has initiated an investigation or any action or proceedings against any person relative to any acts or omissions by such person which may be in violation of this article, the administrator shall have no authority to initiate or pursue against such person any investigation, civil action, or administrative enforcement covered by the provisions of this article with regard to the same acts or omissions or facts or circumstances to which the federal investigation or proceedings are applicable.