News and Press Releases for August 2007

NEW PROCESS WILL MAKE SPENDING INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO CITIZENS VIA COMPTROLLER GENERAL’S OFFICE

August 30, 2007

Columbia, S.C. – Gov. Mark Sanford today issued Executive Order 2007-14, a new directive aimed at providing citizens with a greater degree of information about how their tax dollars are being spent. The Spending Transparency Executive Order was developed in concert with Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom’s office, with the goal of bringing more accountability to where tax dollars are being spent. Under the Order, the Comptroller General’s Office will collect all agencies’ reports of funds expended and their source, and put that information on a Web site freely accessible to the public. In addition, the Order directs each Cabinet agency to provide even more information and details about their expenditures. Each Cabinet agency will develop a searchable database on its own Web site listing specific agency expenditures. Travel expenditures, expenditures for office supplies over $100, and contractual expenses over $100 will all be included in the new searchable databases, which will be updated monthly. Both the Comptroller’s database and the Cabinet agencies’ databases will be available no later than March 8, 2008. The governor said that these databases should serve as a starting point, and challenged non-Cabinet agencies to participate as well. “We’ve long believed that transparency is key to voters’ ability to hold government accountable for the decisions it makes,” Gov. Sanford said. “This Executive Order is all about providing another tool for furthering that end, which is particularly important given the way spending has increased in Columbia over the past three years. I want to thank the Comptroller General for his work on this front, and I’d urge every agency to work diligently to make this information available sooner rather than later.” “The internet provides elected officials a ‘no-excuses’ way to make sure citizens have ready access to how their tax dollars are being spent,” Comptroller General Eckstrom said. “Our goal will be to have an easy-to-use database up and running as quickly as possible so that information on government spending is readily available to the public at large.”