(a) Through the Illinois State Police, the Department of Agriculture shall conduct a background check of the prospective principal officers, board members, and agents of a transporter applying for a license or identification card under this Act. The Illinois State Police shall charge a fee set by rule for conducting the criminal history record check, which shall be deposited into the State Police Services Fund and shall not exceed the actual cost of the record check. In order to carry out this provision, each transporting organization’s prospective principal officer, board member, or agent shall submit a full set of fingerprints to the Illinois State Police for the purpose of obtaining a State and federal criminal records check. These fingerprints shall be checked against the fingerprint records now and hereafter, to the extent allowed by law, filed in the Illinois State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal history records databases. The Illinois State Police shall furnish, following positive identification, all conviction information to the Department of Agriculture.
     (b) When applying for the initial license or identification card, the background checks for all prospective principal officers, board members, and agents shall be completed before submitting the application to the Department of Agriculture.