South Carolina Office of the Comptroller Website Ranks No. 9 in National Review of State Transparency Websites
May 29 2018 - 12:40PM
Business Wire
State Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom’s Office of the
Comptroller Fiscal Transparency Website ranks No. 9 nationally in a
new report evaluating the quality and user-friendliness of all 50
states’ transparency websites.
South Carolina received a “B+” – earning 87 points – in a report
issued by two nonprofit good-government advocacy organizations,
U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) and Frontier Group.
The report lauds South Carolina as an “advancing state” in the
field of government financial transparency available online, noting
that the Palmetto State employs best practices with a variety of
its website features.
In one example, the evaluation included an unannounced search
for six specific expenditures. South Carolina is one of only three
states whose website “proved comprehensive by hosting all six of
the test expenditures in an easily accessible format in the online
checkbook for fiscal year 2017,” the report says.
It also notes that:
- South Carolina is one of only six
states that “post a citizen-accessible financial report on their
website,” referring to South Carolina’s 2017 Popular Annual
Financial Report prepared by Eckstrom’s office.
- The number of open-records requests
declined significantly after Eckstrom launched the Palmetto State’s
transparency website in 2008. That noteworthy decline continues,
with the site providing a wealth of spending detail and other
financial information available to anyone online, thus rendering
many requests for information no longer necessary.
- South Carolina is among a handful of
states that “created and update their websites with funds from
their existing budgets.”
“Some states have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on
their transparency websites,” Eckstrom said, “but we’ve always used
existing internal resources for our site to save taxpayers money.
This report proves that it’s not necessary to spend lots of money
on a high-priced website to provide high-quality information to the
public.”
Eckstrom’s staff is working to achieve an “A” for the Palmetto
State in the 2019 evaluation.
“We could make an ‘A’ this coming year if we receive credit for
new information we’ve recently added that provides details on
financial incentives the state awards to attract film productions
in South Carolina,” said Eckstrom.
Eckstrom has pioneered transparency in South Carolina since
launching his office’s site in 2008. He credits the teamwork and
dedication of his staff, who built and maintains the site, for
making it one of the best in the nation.
“A lot of work goes into keeping the site up to date and
constantly improving it with information that’s not just new but
that’s also useful to the public,” said Eckstrom. “My staff tackles
that challenge head on.”
The report ranking South Carolina No. 9 in transparency is on
the PIRG website.
In addition to advising other government entities on ways to
provide better financial transparency, Eckstrom’s office monitors
spending by state agencies as a safeguard against them overspending
their budgets. His office also processes vendor payments for state
agencies; administers and processes the state payroll; and produces
the state’s comprehensive annual financial report. Eckstrom is the
first certified public accountant to serve as South Carolina’s
comptroller general.
The website is hosted and maintained at no cost to taxpayers
through a partnership between the Office of the Comptroller General
and South Carolina Interactive, doing business as SC.gov.
To view the PIRG report click here.To view the website visit
www.cg.sc.gov.
About SC.gov
SC.gov is the official Web site of South Carolina government
(http://www.SC.gov) and a collaborative effort between the State
and South Carolina Interactive, LLC to enable citizens to conduct
state business online and improve public access to government
information. The South Carolina Department of Administration’s
Division of Technology Operations provides guidance to South
Carolina Interactive, LLC which is responsible for operating,
maintaining, and marketing SC.gov. South Carolina Interactive, LLC
is part of eGovernment firm NIC’s (NASDAQ: EGOV) family of
companies.
About NIC
NIC Inc. (Nasdaq: EGOV) is the nation’s premier
provider of innovative digital government solutions and secure
payment processing, which help make government interactions more
accessible for everyone through technology. The family of NIC
companies has developed a library of more than 13,000 digital
government services for more than 6,000 federal, state, and local
government agencies. Among these solutions is the ground-breaking
personal assistant for government, Gov2Go, delivering citizens
personalized reminders and a single platform for all government
interactions. More information is available at www.egov.com.
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for SC.govCorinne Holland, 803-771-0131General
Managercorinne@egov.com
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