Section 5. In performing the duties pursuant to clause (a) of section four the director may contract with private consultants either for the purpose of assessing the viability of a business likely to experience a large loss of employment, plant closure, or failure, and developing an adjustment strategy to keep the business viable and maintain employment, or for the purpose of securing new ownership or new management or both necessary to keep the business in operation as a viable business and maintain employment; provided, however, that before contracting for such services, the director shall determine: (a) that business is unable to pay for these services; and (b) the director cannot obtain such services of sufficient quality and with sufficient speed from an existing state agency, department, office or quasi public corporation to properly perform said duties.

To perform the duties pursuant to clause (h) of section four, a technical assistance fund is hereby established to be used by the director to contract with private consultants solely for the purposes of assessing the feasibility of converting an existing business to an employee-owned business or for assessing the feasibility of establishing a start-up employee-owned business, and for providing other technical assistance to employee-owned businesses and employee-ownership projects including, but not limited to, legal assistance, marketing assistance and educational services; provided, however, that before contracting for such services, the director shall determine that:

(a) the employee-owned business or employee-ownership project is unable to pay for such services;

(b) such services cannot be obtained of sufficient quality and with sufficient speed from an existing state agency, department, office or quasi-public corporation to properly perform said duties; and

(c) the employee-owned business or employee-ownership project agrees to repay the program for the cost of the technical assistance provided the feasibility assessment is positive, based on terms and conditions established by the director.