(1) Prior to a hearing before a hearing examiner, and during a hearing upon reasonable cause shown, the hearing examiner shall issue subpoenas and subpoenas duces tecum at the request of a party. All witnesses appearing pursuant to subpoena, other than parties, officers or employees of the State of Mississippi or any political subdivision thereof, are entitled to receive fees and mileage in the same amounts and under the same circumstances as provided by law for witnesses in civil actions in the circuit courts. Witnesses entitled to fees or mileage who attend hearings at points so far removed from their residences as to prohibit return thereto from day to day are entitled, in addition to witness fees and mileage, to the expense allowance authorized for state officers and employees for each day of actual attendance and for each day necessarily occupied in traveling to and from the hearings. Fees, subsistence and transportation expenses must be paid by the party at whose request the witness is subpoenaed. The commission may award as costs the amount of all such expenses to the prevailing party.
(2) The testimony of any material witness residing within or without the State of Mississippi who will be unavailable to testify at the hearing may be taken by deposition in the manner provided by the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure.